Mozambique has reached agreement with VTB bank on hidden debt – Minister Pacheco

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Mozambique has reached agreement with VTB bank on hidden debt – Minister Pacheco

12:42 CAT | 08 Mar 2018

Notícias / Minister José Pacheco was speaking to journalists alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after a meeting with the Mozambican head of state, Filipe Nyusi, at the Presidential Palace in Maputo.

Mozambique has reached agreement with the VTB bank on how to settle its debt to the Russian financial institution, the Foreign Ministry announced yesterday.

VTB lent Mozambique Asset Management US$535 million, part of the two billion dollars in hidden state debt contracted without the knowledge of parliament or aid partners by three state-owned companies in 2013 and 2014.

“In relation to the debt with the VTB, the director general of the Russian bank was here, and he worked with the relevant sectors in this area and there are understandings on how to settle the debt,” Mozambican Foreign Minister José Pacheco said.

He was speaking to journalists alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after a meeting with the Mozambican head of state, Filipe Nyusi, at the Presidential Palace in Maputo.

Debt resolution “is a technical issue that is being worked out at the level of the departments responsible for following this process”, Pacheco explained.

Lavrov did not offer any comment on the matter.

VTB President Andrey Kostin told Bloomberg in Davos a month ago that he wanted to meet the Mozambican president “to convince him to negotiate” the payment of the country’s debt.

Source: Lusa