Bulgaria writes off most of Zambian debt
Bulgaria has agreed to write off over four million euros of debt owed by Zambia, if the African country pays Sofia 1.4 million euros in cash. The repayment amounts to 23 per cent of Zambia's total 5.9-million-euro debt, which dates back to Bulgaria's pre-1990 communist regime.
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Zambia will repay the agreed amount in four installments over the next year. The remainder will be classed as development aid.
Bulgaria has made several similar deals with other countries including Syria and Iraq in order to secure at least partial repayment of their debts, many of which have been deferred for more than 20 years.
In 2007, Sofia wrote off Libya's entire 41-million-euro debt during negotiations for the release of six Bulgarian medics detained in connection with a hospital scandal.
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