{"id":321744,"date":"2026-01-09T10:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T02:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=321744"},"modified":"2026-01-09T10:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T02:26:17","slug":"zambia-drops-plan-to-extend-imf-loan-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=321744","title":{"rendered":"Zambia drops plan to extend IMF loan programme"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table aligncenter\"><table><tbody><tr><td><img src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanaweb.com\/imagelib\/pics\/290\/29068556.jpg\" width=\"600\" alt=\"The logo of the International Monetary Fund\"><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"article-123\">WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Zambia has ditched plans to extend its International Monetary Fund loan programme before the scheduled expiration at the end of this month, the fund said on Wednesday.<br><br>&#8220;While the authorities initially requested a one-year extension of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement, they have since informed the IMF team that they will not pursue this option,&#8221; an IMF spokesperson said.<br><br>The programme was agreed in 2022 to help Zambia restore debt sustainability after its 2020 default.<br><br>The sixth and final review under the arrangement is expected to be considered by the fund&#8217;s executive board at the end of January.<br><br>Zambia had hoped to secure about $145 million in additional funding through the extension.<br><br>No reason was given for the decision, which comes as President Hakainde Hichilema&#8217;s government prepares for elections in August while facing double-digit inflation.<br><br>The government forecast an improved fiscal picture for 2026, estimating that the budget deficit would shrink by more than half and that economic growth would rise above 6%, following years of protracted debt restructuring negotiations and a severe drought. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Zambia has ditched plans to extend its International Monetary Fund loan programme before the scheduled expiration at the end of this month, the fund said on Wednesday. &#8220;While the authorities initially requested a one-year extension of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement, they have since informed the IMF team that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":321745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321744"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=321744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321747,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321744\/revisions\/321747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/321745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=321744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=321744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=321744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}