Category: Debt

Kenya Cuts Dollar Debt After Converting Chinese Loans to Yuan

The Kenyan government is moving quickly to diversify its debt portfolio to reduce its reliance on dollar-denominated loans, with the total amount of outstanding USD debt falling 8.5% year-on-year to just 53.2%, according to new National Treasury data. A big reason ...

Tonga’s Debt to China Hinders Rebuild Four Years on From Eruption

By Ben Strang More than four years on from one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in history, Tonga is struggling to improve its infrastructure as it pays off a massive Chinese loan. When Hunga ...

Angola Turns to China for $4.8 Billion Refinery Loan

Angola’s state oil company, Sonangol, is seeking a $4.8 billion loan from Chinese lenders to finance the long-delayed Lobito refinery, reinforcing Luanda’s continued reliance on Beijing for large-scale energy infrastructure funding. The project aims to reduce Angola’s dependence on imported fuel ...

Uruguay Pushing Ahead With Pivot Away From Dollar Debt, Says Finance Minister

By Karin Strohecker and Libby George Uruguay will push ahead with shifting its government debt away from the dollar and seek the broadest trade ties possible as the Latin American nation looks to boost growth, the country's finance minister told Reuters. ...

China’s Role Looms Over Ethiopia’s Stalled Debt Talks With Bondholders

Ethiopia’s debt restructuring negotiations are facing renewed strain as private bondholders push back against objections from the Official Creditor Committee, led by China and France.  Bondholders are complaining that they are being unfairly treated in comparison with bilateral lenders. China is the ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Three New Polls Show China is Edging Past the U.S. as the World’s Partner

Worry about the Trump administration’s decision-making is leading the public around the world to see China as an increasingly attractive counter-option. This is the main takeaway from three large public opinion polls released recently.
The annual Gallup poll of 130 countries is the largest of the three. They also include new Arab Barometer polling of countries in the Middle East, and an annual ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute poll of Southeast Asia.

Get ...

Kenya Cuts Debt Costs With Yuan Swap as China Ties Reshape Financing

Kenya reduced its external debt-servicing costs by about $167 million after using a yuan-for-dollar currency swap linked to its debt with China. This is the first time Nairobi has specified the exact figure, after announcing the swap in October. The transaction lowered ...

New Data Reveals China’s Complex Role in Africa’s Debt Portfolio

China was once Africa's largest bilateral creditor, but now, as many of those loans come due, it's become the continent's largest bilateral collector, according to a new report by the UK-based NGO ONE Data. The so-called "Great Reversal" that ONE Data identified highlights how ...

Are African Governments Naive to Take on so Much Chinese Infrastructure Debt?

China, according to the prevailing "debt trap" narrative, is preying on vulnerable developing countries by loading them up with unsustainable amounts of debt that jeopardizes their sovereignty. When these countries inevitably default on the loans, according to the theory, China ...

The Legend of Hambantota and China’s “Debt Trap” Diplomacy

China's critics, largely in the U.S., often hold up the Sri Lankan port in Hambantota as the cautionary tale of what purportedly can happen when a developing country fails to pay back its loans to Beijing. Because Sri Lanka fell behind ...

China Says it Believes in Debt Sustainability, Just Not the Way Everyone Else Does

Countries around the world, particularly in Africa, are taking huge amounts of Chinese debt to build badly-needed infrastructure, but often without a plan on how to repay those loans. That’s given way for critics in the U.S., Europe, and Japan to ...

Africa Confronts Tough Choices as Economies Falter, Instability Rises

Faced with slumping economies, restive populations and, in many areas, the surging threat of sectarian violence, a growing number of African countries stand at a critical juncture where they must decide who to turn to for help: to their new friends in Beijing or ...
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