The World Bank's chief said it was incumbent on China and other creditors to come forward with actual commitments to allow Zambia, which requested debt treatment under a Group of 20 framework nearly two years ago, to return to sustainable debt levels.
Malpass said a new sovereign debt roundtable aimed at resolving bigger issues around debt restructuring had made progress. China was more receptive to arguments that multilateral development banks could participate in debt treatment via highly concessional loans and grants.
Zambia could lose gains achieved so far from macroeconomic reforms if its ongoing debt restructuring is further delayed, the nation's Treasury Secretary, Felix Nkulukusa, has said.
"We have an economic program that is an important element for the reform we are undertaking, but the second component, the restructuring, is delayed," Nkulukusa said, on a public debt panel during the World Bank and International Monetary Fund spring meetings this week in Washington.
Zambia was the first African country to default during the COVID-19 pandemic and is in talks for $18.6 billion of debt, according to official data at the end of last year.
