Category: Finance
“At Long Last, We Now Know How Much Poor Country Governments Owe China”
The team at the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C, has been poring through the treasure trove of information contained in the World Bank's newly released International Debt Statistics database. "For decades, researchers have ...
South Africa FM: Debt is the Hippo Eating the Next Generation’s Inheritance
South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni issued a dire warning to the parliament on Wednesday about the country's debt crisis. With South Africa's debt-to-GDP levels breaking new records this year and forecast to grow to 82% in the next few months, Minister Mboweni compared the debt ...
World Bank President Says He’s Confident China, Private Creditors Will Deliver Debt Relief
World Bank President David Malpass (photo) told Bloomberg that he's confident private creditors will somehow come up with a way to restructure the $140+ billion of bond debt that poor countries owe investors. “The view of the international community was very ...
Vera Songwe on Chinese Debt Relief for Africa: “There’s Still a Lot to be Done”
Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Vera Songwe, joined Masood Ahmed, president of the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Center for Global Development, in an online discussion last week where she provided an update on the status of the ongoing debt relief ...
Amid Rising Fears Over Debt, Government Tries to Reassure Public That China Will Not Seize Assets
This year's dramatic fall in oil prices combined with the federal government's move to take on billions of dollars in new loans in the midst of an ongoing economic crisis is prompting widespread anxiety in Nigeria. Those concerns were further amplified this week when the country's Debt ...
David Hundeyin: The U.S. Drive to Investigate the Head of the AfDB Doesn’t Have Anything to do With Corruption, It’s All About China
Business Day (Nigeria) columnist David Hundeyin echoed the increasingly popular sentiment in Nigeria that geopolitics, not an effort to fight corruption is behind the U.S.-led drive to investigate Akinwumi Adesina, the popular president of the African Development Bank. Hundeyin, ...
Bloomberg’s Alonso Soto: “The Ticking Debt Bomb in Africa Threatens a Global Explosion”
Bloomberg's Nigeria correspondent Alonso Soto is covering the burgeoning debt crisis in Africa more closely than any other international journalist, filing 2-3 stories a week on the topic. Until now, his reporting on the issue has been quite measured, with straightforward stories on the progress of various ...
With No Debt Relief Deal in Place, Africa’s Economic Crisis Worsens by the Day
The cost of borrowing for many African governments is rapidly rising as the economic crisis on the continent worsens. While the double-digit yields on African bonds is great news for investors looking for new growth opportunities, it's an absolute tragedy for governments who are forced to divert even ...
World Bank President Frustrated About the Slow Pace of Private Debt Relief for Africa
World Bank President David Malpass said in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday that he is disappointed that Africa's private creditors aren't doing more to provide badly-needed relief for poor countries struggling amid worsening economic conditions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. (BLOOMBERG) ...
African Leaders Criticize Wealthy Countries For Lack of Progress on Debt Relief
Five African presidents, from Kenya, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Niger, decried the lack of meaningful progress by wealthy industrial countries on debt relief and financial assistance to the continent amid the worsening COVID-19 outbreak. The leaders took part in a ...