Chinese Lending in Africa Slumps Lowest Point in 16 Years

Chinese lending to Africa has fallen sharply, but China isn’t retreating from the continent. Rather, new data from Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center show how a complex mix of global and local factors impacted the Africa-China relationship.

These include the U.S.-China trade war of the Trump era that pushed China towards a domestic-facing dual circulation strategy, the impact of commodity price cycles on African countries’ ability to borrow, and how the COVID-19 pandemic forced these countries to borrow more, just to keep the lights on.

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by Cobus van Staden

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