G20 debt relief talks should take three months, says IMF Africa head

DEBT restructuring talks between creditor countries should take three months, the head of the IMF’s Africa Department told Reuters, amid criticisms of the slow speed of negotiations and calls for China to show leadership in tackling debt issues.

South Africa has offered to co-chair Zambia’s creditor committee, following China’s pledge to do so at IMF meetings last week, but Zambia’s debt sustainability analysis has yet to be finalized, Abebe Aemro Selassie said in an interview.

Zambia, which became the first pandemic-era default in 2020, Ethiopia and Chad all sought debt relief more than a year ago under the common framework process set up by the Group of 20 leading economies in response to Covid-19.

“We’ve seen significant challenges in setting up creditor committees quickly,” Selassie said, ahead of the publication of the IMF’s biannual Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa on Thursday.

G20 creditors should give the IMF the “financing