From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:ZAMBIA: World Bank praises economic performance of government
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 01:22:29 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Area: Opecna Morning Transmission
Title: ZAMBIA: World Bank praises economic performance of government


paris, dec 16 (ips/george ola davies) -- a world bank official has
described the economic performance of the one-year-old regime in
zambia as a sharp and positve departure from the practices of the
former government.

stephen denning, world bank director for southern africa, said:
''this government has kept all its promises and has improved on
the overall economy of the country.'' his comments followed an
informal meeting of donors held last week.

the meeting was held under the auspices of the world bank, at the
request of zambia, whose finance minister emmanuel kasonde said he
''wanted to have an oportunity to consult the donors before our
budget in january, to ensure that the funds that i put in the
budget will be there''.

zambia's needs for the next 1993 financial year will be between
1.3 billion and 1.4 billion dollars in order to meet its debt
servicing, kasonde said.

the country's global debt according to kasonde was 7.2 billion
dollars when the new administration took power, ''but half of this
had been written off or rescheduled, mainly by the paris club''.

in spite of the brighter economic picture zambia still came in
for criticism for its failure to keep the inflation rate down.

the inflation rate this year rose to over 170 percent. kasonde
said this was caused by structural factors including drought, but
added ''i will try to be a good housekeeper and put greater
restraint on government spending next year''.

zambia has two budgets: the non-drought and the drought budget.
this year the non-drought deficit was held at 1.8 percent of gross
domestic product compared with last year's 7.5 percent.

the drought budget has a deficit of 2.5 percent of gdp mainly
because of poor planning for the sale of both locally produced and
imported maize, the country's staple food.

some of the essential elements of the present administration's
policy reforms, now in place, are the removal of subsidies from
maize and fertiliser, liberalisation of the exchange rate, civil
service reform and the privatisation of parastatals.

kasonde said there had been tremendous successes, especially in
the removal of subsidies from maize and the privatisation of
parastatals.

locally produced maize, he said, is now being sold for 16 dollars
for a 90 kilogram measure adding that his government's
''commitment is to move the price in monthly adjustments to 14
dollars at the bureaux de change rate by may 1993''. (more/ips)

zambia: world bank praises economic performance of government(2-e)

this will bring the crop's price on to a par with those in
neighbouring countries.

the privatisation of parastatals was divided into three stages.
the first stage, which has just ended, involved 19 small
companies, all of which the minister said, have recorded
substantial interest and sales will be completed early next year.

the price of zambia's main export product, copper, is suffering
from a fall in the world market and the government's plan to
diversify its economy by producing more agricultural products has
not quite taken off as a result of the drought.

kasonde is, however, hopeful that early rains this year will lead
to a much healthier yield of different export crops which will
reduce the hitherto total dependence on copper.

with what the world bank describes as an exemplary performance
there is every likelihood that when zambia's consultative group
meeting is held in march next year, donors will again pledge to
meet lusaka's needs. (end/ips/ne/gd/mf/92)
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