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Graph of the Day: China’s Real Share of African Debt

Amid the news that Zambia has moved towards the official start of negotiations with its private creditors, it is worthwhile remembering that China's share of African debt is far outstripped by debt to private sector lenders in the U.S. and Europe and Western-led multilateral lenders. This is ...

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 Newest Talking Point on Debt: The U.S. Dollar is to Blame

As China faces increasing criticism around perceptions that it is holding up debt relief processes, its state media seems to be trying out new talking points in its messaging on the issue to Global South audiences, as seen in a recent article in the state-owned tabloid Global Times: ...

Xinhua: The U.S. Deliberately Distorts Chinas’s Role in the African Debt Crisis

The burgeoning debt crisis in a growing number of African countries is increasingly seen by the Chinese government as another front in Beijing's competition with Western powers like the U.S. A recent article published earlier this month by the official Xinhua ...

Debunking Propaganda in the Debate Over “Western Private Creditor” Debt in Africa

In this short piece, I will use statistical data extracted from the World Bank's online database. The figures I will use here are for Africa as a whole, i.e. sub-Saharan Africa (the one most often referred to when talking about "African" debt) and North Africa. Figures are for the ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

BRICS Announces Numerous New Initiatives

The BRICS group wrapped up its two-day leaders’ summit in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. The summit’s final communique is a 16,000-word doorstop that covers numerous issues from economics to education.
The communique avoids any direct mention of the United States, and references to “unilateralism” and other coded criticism are also relatively scarce. Rather, the communique keeps the focus on the BRICS’ vision of the strengthening and reform of the global multilateral system ...

African Legislators Make Vain Appeal For Debt Cancellation 

Legislative leaders from across Africa issued a joint appeal on Tuesday for creditor nations to cancel some of the continent's outstanding debts.  The parliamentarians are meeting this week in Abuja for the first-ever gathering of the Conference of Speakers and Heads of African Parliaments ...

U.S. Moves to Cut Russia Out of the G20 Could Hit African Economies

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 ...