Zambia Owes Chinese Lenders $6.6bn

A new estimate for the amount of money that Zambia owes Chinese lenders is nearly double what the Zambian government had previously admitted.<br />The credit rating firm S&P Global says Zambia spends at least 30% of its income on interest payments, <br />President, Hakainde Hichilema, says the debt situation had not been fully disclosed by the former government.<br />A new paper from the China Africa Research Initiative, based at Johns Hopkins University in the US, estimates that the sum now amounts to $6.6bn.<br />Zambia&#039;s finance ministry says these figures were broadly consistent with official government reporting.