Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the approach taken by BlackRock to Zambian debt.

Zambia is one of three countries to have requested a debt treatment under the Common Framework. The Common Framework was agreed in November 2020 by the UK, along with the G20 and Paris Club, to help deliver a long-term, sustainable approach for supporting low-income countries to tackle their debt vulnerabilities.

Private sector participation in the Common Framework is critical. Under the terms of the Common Framework, a debtor country that signs an MoU with participating official creditors will be required to seek from all private creditors a treatment at least as favourable. Accordingly, once Zambia signs an MoU for its case it will need to engage its private creditors to ensure their participation on comparable terms.

The Government routinely engages private sector creditors on international debt issues in a number of fora and will work closely with its international partners to ensure private creditors fully play their part in Zambia’s restructuring.