Category: Loans
Mapping the Emerging Africa-China Landscape
Boston University's Global Development Policy Center published a new policy brief tracking trends in Chinese financing to Africa. It notes the sharp decline in the size and number of loans compared to the 2010s. This point has been made before and ...
What Does Chinese Lending to Africa Look Like Now?
China has been one of the most important development lenders to Africa over the last quarter of a century. This has transformed the African development landscape in helpful and problematic ways. It is also changing very rapidly. A new report from ...
Chinese Loans to Africa by Region, 2000-2022
From 2000-2022, countries in Southern Africa and East Africa historically borrowed the most from China primarily due to large-scale loans in Angola, Zambia, South Africa, Ethiopia and Kenya. In 2021 and 2022, the regional composition is distinct from previous years; lending ...
Smaller and Greener? New Data Reveals a Shift in Chinese Loans to Africa
By Victoria Yvonne Bien-Aimé, Lucas Engel and Oyintarelado Moses A combination of economic shocks from the COVID-19 pandemic and the policy shift to a greener high-quality Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has translated into a substantial decline in large-scale Chinese loan ...
Kenya’s Debt-Servicing Costs Edge Higher Amid Street Protests and Heightened Uncertainty
Kenya spent 59% of all the money it collects in taxes to service the country's ballooning debt, a slight increase from the previous fiscal year. The news adds further pressure on President William Ruto, who slashed subsidies and increased taxes in ...
Heard About Those Escrow Accounts Used to Secure Chinese Loans in Africa? Here’s What They Look Like in Action
There's been a lot of discussion in recent years about how Chinese lenders required high-risk borrowers in Africa and other developing countries to put large pools of money in offshore escrow accounts as a kind of insurance measure that guaranteed the creditor would be repaid. ...
If You Lead a Developing Country and Want to Borrow Money From China, Then Listen to This Podcast
The days of China easily handing out billions of dollars to build infrastructure in developing countries around the world are now over. The Chinese can't afford it anymore and many of the borrowing countries just don't have the capacity to take ...
South African Utility Boss’s Trip to China Sparks Outrage Back Home Where Millions Fume Without Power
The acting CEO of troubled South African state-owned utility Eskom, Calib Cassim, provoked widespread outrage late last week when it was revealed that he led a high-level delegation to China that also included Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan. Civil society ...
The Real Drivers and Impacts of Chinese Overseas Lending and Development Finance
By Oyintarelado Moses Debates about the drivers and impacts of Chinese overseas lending and development finance (OLDF) have accompanied the rise of China as the world’s largest official bilateral lender. Amidst stalled debt negotiations under the ...
New African Debt Database Shows Chinese Loans Are Cheap, But Not the Cheapest
Researchers at the Kiel Institue for the World Economy in Germany launched a new database of African debt that confirms a key Chinese talking point: Beijing's loans to African countries are significantly cheaper than those of commercial creditors. However, David Mihalyi and ...
China’s Lending Money Again to Countries in the Americas
Chinese lending to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean is gaining momentum. For the second year in a row, China's two largest policy banks have increased lending to countries in the region, albeit in much smaller amounts than what they ...
Lending Data Offers Clue to China’s Global South Influence
A new report led by the U.S.-based research center AidData is drawing global attention this week. It shows that from 2008 to 2021, China spent $240 billion in bailouts and liquidity support to 22 Global South countries. Even though the report focuses ...