Mutati to meet IMF next week

. Mutati

By HELEN ZULU –
FINANCE Minister Felix Mutati is next week expected to meet the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to discuss the way forward as regards the financial bailout the country is pursuing.
Mr Mutati said he would engage the IMF on a high-level note to see how the Government and the IMF could work together in stabilising and growing the economy.
The minister said the Government was going to table a home-grown programme that would enable the country’s economy to grow.
Mr Mutati was speaking during the Deloitte Zambia 2018 National Budget analysis breakfast meeting in Lusaka yesterday.
“We have been engaging with the IMF. We have now formulated the 2018 Budget. We have also put in place the medium-term expenditure framework, so we have defined the macro-economic framework for the next three years, defining our expenditure path and our borrowing path, as a critical element to conclude the discussions with the IMF.
“Next week I will be engaging with them at the highest level, so I am going to have the engagement about fiscal fitness that we need to help each other. We are on the same platform, what we take to the table is a home-grown programme,” Mr Mutati said.
The minister said the Government was determined to ensure that in 2018, fiscal fitness is accelerated to achieve economic growth.
Mr Mutati said it was worrying for the Government that the non-performing loans in 2017 stood at 12.2 per cent, which was quite high.
He said while there was liquidity available in the country, the private sector appetite to take it up had shrunk by 2.9 per cent and that this called for the need to work on it and address it.
“We need the colleagues in the private sector to help us in consolidating on the stability in the economy,” Mr Mutati said.