veri blog

For more than a decade, African governments surfed a global wave of cheap money. From 2007 to 2024, annual sovereign bond issuance in Africa jumped from about US$70 billion to US$350 billion , while the stock of marketable bond debt ballooned from US$160 billion to US$730 billion . Add in domestic borrowing and loans from multilaterals, China and private lenders, and total public debt on the continent has risen more than fourfold to around US$2 trillion . In 2025, the bill is

For the first time since it tumbled into default in 2020, Zambia is beginning a new month with something it has not seen in years: two major rating agencies moving in the right direction at the same time. On 21 November 2025 , S&P Global Ratings lifted Zambia’s foreign-currency sovereign rating from selective default (SD) to CCC+/C with a stable outlook , explicitly acknowledging that the country had “exited default status” after making substantial progress in restructuring i

Five years after missing a US$42.5 million Eurobond coupon and tumbling into default, Zambia has finally clawed its way back into the good graces of at least one major rating agency. On Friday, S&P Global Ratings  lifted Zambia’s long- and short-term foreign-currency ratings to CCC+/C  from selective default (SD) , formally removing the scarlet letter that has hung over the country since 2020. “It confirms that Zambia has moved out of default status and is steadily restoring