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Yellen Calls on China to Allow Headway in Zambian Debt Talks

Calls multilateral restructuring deal ‘critically important’
Zambia has become test case for the G20’s Common Framework

Janet Yellen — Janet Yellen
Photographer: Seyllou/AFP/Getty Images

By

Matthew Hill and

Christopher Condon

January 23, 2023, 1:57 PM UTCUpdated onJanuary 23, 2023, 6:19 PM UTC

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged Zambia’s creditors to work quickly to restructure the southern Africa nation’s debts, and accused China of obstructing a deal.

Zambia became Africa’s first pandemic-era sovereign defaulter in 2020, and since then has been struggling to revamp external debt that topped $17 billion, more than a third of which is held by Chinese creditors.