Category: Economy

During the last major Global South debt crisis in the late 1980s, the United States pioneered an initiative that bundled together all of these countries' debts into a bond that would then be re-packaged and sold to investors. These so-called "Brady ...

Chinese loan contracts to African countries are increasingly controversial, raising questions as to how African negotiators can get better deals. One of the world’s foremost experts on Africa-China negotiations, Folashade Soule, recently published a report highlighting how a group of negotiators in Benin bargained with Chinese bodies ...

Throughout the last two years, Kenya has been rattled by reports that its debt to China for the troubled Standard Gauge Railway could lead to the seizure of the Port of Mombasa. Since then this story and the other ‘debt trap’ narratives like it have largely been debunked.

For the second time in a week, the World Bank has raised the alarm about mounting debt in Africa. A new blog post shows that not only has public debt in Southern and Eastern Africa doubled over the last decade, but the proportion of pricy private debt is also ...

The U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Russia should be expelled from the Group of 20 (G20) the forum of leading economies that plays a major role in international economic management. She also said U.S. officials may boycott G20 meetings if Russian counterparts show up at upcoming ...

Nigeria’s national union of textile workers is complaining about the complicity of customs officials in the flooding of the local market by Chinese textiles. While cheap imports from China have long been blamed for undercutting the local garment sector, the National Union of Textile, Garment, and Tailoring ...

Kenya's embattled currency, the shilling, sank even further on Monday, dipping to an all-time low of 115 against the U.S. dollar, prompting renewed concerns that the country will soon face a dramatic economic reckoning.  The problem is that every time the shilling ...

A new overland transport corridor has made history by linking China directly to the Indian Ocean for the first time. Built jointly by Chinese provinces and Singapore, the transport corridor links the Chinese manufacturing hub of Chongqing with Vientiane, ...

South Africa doubled its exports of wine to China last year, following the souring of relations between Beijing and its biggest wine seller, Australia. While we’ve seen sporadic reports of how Western Cape wine farmers are leaning into their ...

By Saniya Kulkarni Although the UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s aggression in Ukraine was passed with 141 votes in favor, the 35 abstentions, primarily from states in the Global South, but especially those by powers like China, India, and South Africa, ...

The head of South Africa's State Information Technology Agency, Luvuyo Keyise, made it clear on Tuesday that Huawei had better start hiring more local employees if it wants to continue doing business with the SA government. Earlier this year, 

For the second year in a row, Chinese policy banks (China Exim Bank and China Development Bank) extended no new loans to governments or state-owned enterprises in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). This was the finding of a new study by Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center ...