After nearly two years of painful, drawn-out negotiations, Zambia finally closed a deal to restructure its bilateral external debt. The announcement was made last week at a global development finance summit in Paris and the new agreement is widely seen as a landmark deal since for the first time it brought together traditional lenders, private sector lenders along with new creditors like China, India, and Saudi Arabia.
The terms of the deal though are also groundbreaking and, in many ways, look a lot like China’s restructurings in other developing countries. Geraud, Cobus, and Eric this week dive into the details of the deal and discuss whether China did, in fact, set the agenda here or if Beijing was merely one among many actors that worked collaboratively to reach a consensus.
