Tag: debt
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Debt Trap? Nah, We’re Too Disorganized For Anything Like That Says China’s Chargé d’Affaires in Nigeria
China's Chargé d'Affaires in the embassy in Nigeria, Zhao Yong, provided an uncharacteristically frank rebuttal last week to the persistent accusations that Beijing is engaged in predatory lending in Nigeria and Africa writ large. In typical fashion, Zhao blamed the U.S. ...
Africa’s Major Economies Sinking Under the Weight of Surging Debt, Reduced Trade, and Massive New Social Welfare Costs
The economic fundamentals in a growing number of Africa's major economies are showing signs of rapid deterioration amid the ongoing economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Seemingly every week there's a new downgrade, analyst warning, or economic indicator that points to an increasingly dire situation ...
Why African Countries in Debt to China Should Pay Close Attention to What’s Happening in Laos
A Chinese state-owned company will take control of the power grid in Laos, one of Asia's poorest countries, in a deal to stave off default of its multi-billion-dollar debts to China. The two sides reached an agreement last week for Electricite du ...
Is Debt-for-Equity Chinese for “Debt Trap?”
Tucked away in a remote corner of Southeast Asia, an important experiment is now underway that could have profound implications for how China manages its vast loan portfolio in Africa and in other developing regions. Last week, Laos's state-owned electric power ...
Debt Relief Helps But It’s Still Not Enough to Offset the Economic Impact of COVID-19
The Beijing-based consultancy Development Reimagined (DR) released a new data set this week that tracks COVID-19 developments in African countries and their economic impact. Their reports and infographics provide a useful companion to the latest news from the Paris Club that Angola will be granted ...
There’s a Complex Mix of Historical Anxiety Wrapped Into Nigerians’ Concerns Over Chinese Loans
To get a sense of just how widespread the concern is in Nigeria over Chinese loans, head over to the Twitter page of popular comedian and actor Bright Okpocha, aka Basketmouth, where since last Thursday he's pinned a semi-serious ...
FT Article Sparks a Lot of Excitement About Chinese Debt Restructuring Deals But Details Still Remain Sparse
An FT story published over the weekend injected a burst of rare optimism into the African debt relief discussion. The article by U.S.-based Markets Correspondent Camilla Hodgson reported on last Tuesday's remarks by Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian that Beijing had reached debt relief ...
A Primer in How Chinese Development Finance Works in Africa
Today, China is the world's largest official creditor, more twice as large as the World and the International Monetary Fund combined. Nowhere is this more evident than in Africa where Beijing has lent an estimated ...
Africa Debt Relief Update With Bloomberg’s Alonso Soto
Seven months into the worsening African debt crisis and still there's no prospect for any meaningful relief in sight. The situation grows even direr by the day as more countries struggle to pay for rising healthcare costs brought on by the ...
Tempers Flare in Nigerian House Hearing on Chinese Loans
Three weeks of steadily building tensions over Chinese loans to Nigeria erupted in a House committee hearing on Monday. Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi and the Chairman of the House Committee on Treaties, Protocols, and Agreements, Nicholas Ossai, confronted one another in a series of ...
With an Eye on China, G7 Finance Ministers Call on G20 Bilateral Creditors to Keep Their Debt Freeze Promises
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin hosted a teleconference with his fellow finance ministers from the Group of Seven rich countries on Monday and the burgeoning debt crisis in the world's poorest countries was high on the agenda. The finance chiefs called ...
Deborah Brautigam on Whether the Burgeoning U.S.-China Conflict Will Complicate Debt Relief for Africa
Professor Deborah Brautigam, director of the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. reflected on the "war of words" between the World Bank, led by longstanding China-hawk David Malpass and Beijing. Brautigam explains that the concerns expressed by ...