LUSAKA, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Zambian Vice-President Inonge Wina on Friday expressed optimism that the country's foreign reserves will increase following government intervention measures.
The government has started the process of boosting the country's reserves through payment of mineral royalty in U.S. dollars and holding reserves in gold, she said.
During a question and answer session in parliament, Wina said the central bank is exploring possibilities of broadening areas of collecting reserves by including gold to the reserve portfolio.
The government has been receiving mineral royalty tax in U.S. dollars, collecting 254 million dollars, she said.
"The Ministry of Finance has also gone into reorganization of debt service and this means that we are reducing debt service and related payments over the medium-term period by negotiating on terms of loans and canceling loans that have not drawn down," Wina said.
Zambia's foreign reserves dropped to 1.4 billion dollars at the end of March 2019.
