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China Writes Off Unspecified Amount of Zimbabwe’s Interest-Free Debt

China's ambassador to Zimbabwe, Zhou Ding, announced that Beijing will cancel a very small portion of Harare's estimated $2.1 billion of outstanding debt to Chinese creditors. Zhou said on Wednesday that interest-free loans that matured at the end of 2015 ...

Getting China Out of Mineral Supply Chains Will Take Closer Cooperation With Africa: Report

The United States is increasingly focused on lessening its dependence on China for critical minerals. While some key rare earth minerals are mined in China, its involvement is much broader in mineral refining and battery manufacturing. Many of the refined minerals ...

Q&A: Financing a Renewables Shift in African Countries as China’s New “Small or Beautiful” Model Takes Root

If you look at the specific demands of many African countries, they are now more focused on production-related activities rather than fancy highways that lead to nowhere.

WEEK IN REVIEW: Russian President Vladimir Putin Will Reportedly Travel to China in October

Russian President Vladimir Putin will reportedly travel to China to attend the Belt and Road Forum in October, his first overseas visit since the ICC issued a warrant for his arrest on alleged war crimes. The Kremlin confirmed the Russian leader will not travel to India for next ...

Massive Russian Energy Buys Are Transforming China’s Global Trade

Russia is now China's largest single supplier of energy commodities in a shift that is also transforming Beijing's trade engagement in countries throughout the Global South. Whereas fifteen years ago, China sourced a third of its imported crude oil from African ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

The G20 Summit and the Half-Life of a Joke

When it was announced in 2023 that the African Union would become a full member of the G20, I darkly joked on a podcast that the AU’s entry into the body could very well mark the moment the G20 lost its status as one of the most important global coordination forums. Mark my words, I said, soon The Economist will be like “Uhhh, the G20 is OVER – it’s the ...

Trend to Watch: More Hunan Cities Launch Commercial Diplomacy Initiatives in Africa

Representatives from 50 African countries are expected to participate in the upcoming China-Africa Trade Expo that will take place for the third time in the central Chinese province of Hunan beginning on June 29th. The expo serves as an important showcase for ...

Hunan’s Trade With Africa is Up 90% in 2023

The central Chinese province of Hunan has spent years positioning itself as an African trading hub, and according to the latest customs data, its efforts are now paying significant dividends. Trade between the province and African countries surged by 90% in ...

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 ...

Africa’s Debt-fueled Infrastructure Binge Will Not Generate Economic Growth, Says Prominent Kenyan Scholar

Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia are among a number of African countries that borrowed billions of dollars over the past twenty years to build massive infrastructure projects that policymakers in those countries all thought would help grow their economies. That didn't happen ...

China’s Write-Off of 23 African Loans Doesn’t Move the Debt Needle: Report

China’s announcement last month that it is canceling 23 interest-free loans (IFLs) to seventeen African countries covers at most about 1% of African debt to China, according to a new study by Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center.  Last month's cancellation announcement drew much media attention, but ...

China’s Record Drought Could Be Bad News for the Global South

China is suffering through its hottest summer in history. Climate change-related heatwaves have dried up rivers, caused urban blackouts, and depressed economic output. It is also triggering long-term anxieties about food security. China’s history of ...

Chinese Scholar Makes the Case That It’s Bond Debt, Not Bilateral Loans That Trap Developing Countries

A new research paper by prominent Tsinghua University development finance scholar Tang Xiaoyang provides the most detailed argument to date in defense of China's bilateral lending to Global South countries and how mostly Western-initiated bonds are the real culprit in burdening poor states with unmanageable debts.
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