ZAMBIAN President Frederick Chiluba on Friday cited a prolonged donor aid squeeze and declining foreign exchange earnings from copper as among factors that led to the country’s poor economic performance during 1998. Despite projections that the economy would grow by 5% in 1998, it only registered a 2% growth rate. Chiluba reported that inflation, which government had hoped to reduce by 50% from 18,6% in 1997, instead shot up to 27%. Debt repayments of $110-million are a big drain on foreign exchange reserves, while Western donor pledges of $235-million in balance-of-payments support for 1998 did not arrive, due to differences over governance issues.
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