I recently spent two weeks in #Zambia, mainly in Lusaka, meeting clients, conducting research, speaking to government officials. Here are some of my key takeaways 🧵🇿🇲 DEBT - this issue came up everywhere, and with good reason. Not only is it driving macroeconomic instability, but the government is nowhere near concluding a deal. And why? Because its largest creditor, #China, isn't happy with the terms laid out by the G20.

#SouthAfrica: Today the finance minister went back on the decision to exempt #Eskom from reporting expense regularities and the electricity minister lifted the state of disaster declared two months to deal with #loadshedding. These developments are good, but-- --it's alarming that they were made in the first place, because the first was an attempt to cover up the #corruption that we know to have occurred and the second would've simply opened the door to further corruption.

#Russia's whistle-stop tour of southern Africa included a visit to #Angola, despite President Lourenço's pivot away from the former Soviet power in recent years. A 🧵 on what's happened between the two countries lately and what it all means. #Angola in October 2022 became one of just a handful of African states to condemn Russia's invasion of #Ukraine, having previously abstained. Apparently this came from pressure from the EU (mostly Portugal). voaportugues.com/a/angola-vota-…