USAKA (Reuters) – Zambia’s economy is expected to grow by 4.1 percent in 2017 and by close to 5 percent by 2019, the World Bank said on Thursday, but the global lender also warned that stricter spending controls were needed to ease the country’s large debt burden.
“The government has started to reduce the large stock of expenditure arrears but further efforts are needed to improve budgetary controls and better withstand fiscal pressures if the national debt is to remain at sustainable levels,” the bank said in a report.
(Reporting by Chris Mfula; Writing by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by Ed Stoddard)
