Deborah Brautigam, a prominent expert on Chinese global financing flows, responded to recent discussions about comparisons in Chinese and U.S. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Africa. It was sparked by a BBC report, which used 2023 data from the China-Africa Research Initiative, a platform pioneered by Brautigam, to argue that U.S. FDI to Africa outstripped Chinese flows in 2023 for the first time in a decade.
On Monday, Brautigam posted 2024 data showing that in the following year, U.S. FDI shrank, with companies selling off equity rather than continuing the investment trend. This complicates the BBC’s argument that the 2023 increase points to the success of the U.S. Development Finance Corporation in funneling investment to the continent. She pointed out that tracking this information remains very difficult, not least due to the role of intermediary investment destinations, an issue also raised in the AidData report.
