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An econometric assessment of external debt sustainability indicators in Zambia

Given inadequate domestic resources, as well as political and social pressures for development projects, Zambia will tend to run high budget deficits, and become very dependent on external debt. Thus debt sustainability becomes a major policy goal. This study investigated the significant macroeconom...

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Main Author: Ng'andwe, Mumbi Tenga
Other Authors: Kabinga, Mundia
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Research of GSB 2018
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access_status_str Open Access
author Ng'andwe, Mumbi Tenga
author2 Kabinga, Mundia
author_browse Kabinga, Mundia
Ng'andwe, Mumbi Tenga
author_facet Kabinga, Mundia
Ng'andwe, Mumbi Tenga
author_sort Ng'andwe, Mumbi Tenga
collection Thesis
description Given inadequate domestic resources, as well as political and social pressures for development projects, Zambia will tend to run high budget deficits, and become very dependent on external debt. Thus debt sustainability becomes a major policy goal. This study investigated the significant macroeconomic factors that can influence external debt sustainability. These are GDP growth; Government revenues; exports; public expenditure; interest rate and exchange rate. The study employed simple Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) as well as a Vector Auto Regression (VAR) to capture dynamic relationships. The results revealed that exports and interest rates were positively related to sustainability. Revenues, GDP growth and Exchange rate were inversely related to debt sustainability. The total expenditure to GDP was inversely related to sustainability while current expenditure was positively related to sustainability probably due to prudent use of current expenditure on economic factors that stimulated growth. Capital expenditure was not significant to sustainability which may reflect the poor attention paid to infrastructure development in Zambia. The impulse response of the solvency indicator to revenue, GDP growth and total expenditure/GDP were generally negative over a ten year period. The policy implication is that in order to keep the debt sustainable, the debt resources must be used to maximise GDP growth and enhance public revenue. The impulse responses from exchange rate and interest rates to shocks on the solvency indicator were positive. The impulse response of SI from impulses in exports was negative. These are factors that are not completely in the control of the Government. The policy implication in contracting international debt is that Government should go for the lowest possible interest rate. Government should do its best to develop credible export promotion policies that can directly impact on the SI and also help to stabilize the exchange rate.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:34:08.683Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2018
publishDateRange 2018
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/29035 An econometric assessment of external debt sustainability indicators in Zambia Ng'andwe, Mumbi Tenga Kabinga, Mundia Development Finance Given inadequate domestic resources, as well as political and social pressures for development projects, Zambia will tend to run high budget deficits, and become very dependent on external debt. Thus debt sustainability becomes a major policy goal. This study investigated the significant macroeconomic factors that can influence external debt sustainability. These are GDP growth; Government revenues; exports; public expenditure; interest rate and exchange rate. The study employed simple Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) as well as a Vector Auto Regression (VAR) to capture dynamic relationships. The results revealed that exports and interest rates were positively related to sustainability. Revenues, GDP growth and Exchange rate were inversely related to debt sustainability. The total expenditure to GDP was inversely related to sustainability while current expenditure was positively related to sustainability probably due to prudent use of current expenditure on economic factors that stimulated growth. Capital expenditure was not significant to sustainability which may reflect the poor attention paid to infrastructure development in Zambia. The impulse response of the solvency indicator to revenue, GDP growth and total expenditure/GDP were generally negative over a ten year period. The policy implication is that in order to keep the debt sustainable, the debt resources must be used to maximise GDP growth and enhance public revenue. The impulse responses from exchange rate and interest rates to shocks on the solvency indicator were positive. The impulse response of SI from impulses in exports was negative. These are factors that are not completely in the control of the Government. The policy implication in contracting international debt is that Government should go for the lowest possible interest rate. Government should do its best to develop credible export promotion policies that can directly impact on the SI and also help to stabilize the exchange rate. 2018-11-07T13:03:37Z 2018-11-07T13:03:37Z 2015 Master Thesis Masters MCom http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29035 eng application/pdf Research of GSB Faculty of Commerce University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Development Finance
Ng'andwe, Mumbi Tenga
An econometric assessment of external debt sustainability indicators in Zambia
thesis_degree_str Master's
title An econometric assessment of external debt sustainability indicators in Zambia
title_full An econometric assessment of external debt sustainability indicators in Zambia
title_fullStr An econometric assessment of external debt sustainability indicators in Zambia
title_full_unstemmed An econometric assessment of external debt sustainability indicators in Zambia
title_short An econometric assessment of external debt sustainability indicators in Zambia
title_sort econometric assessment of external debt sustainability indicators in zambia
topic Development Finance
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29035
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AT ngandwemumbitenga econometricassessmentofexternaldebtsustainabilityindicatorsinzambia