Countries in Debt to China, as Per Reports

By Garvit Vyas , 25 April, 2023

Recently, China has bailed out some countries because of heavily in debt to China. According to the reports, these countries are mostly located in Africa, Southeast Asia and can also be found in the Central Asia and the Pacific.

As per the data, China held 37 percent of these nations’ debt in 2020. Also, 24 percent of the country’s bilateral debt hails from the rest of the world. The information regarding the “New Silk Road” project finances the construction of the rail, port and land infrastructure worldwide. It has also created much debt to China for participating countries.

The reports shows that, towards the end of 2021, 98 countries for whom the data was available- Kenya $7.4 billion external debt to China; $27.4 billion of external debt to China; Angola with $22.0 billion; Ethiopia with $ 7.4 billion, held the biggest debts to China. And the countries with biggest burdens equally are Djibouti and Angola. Followed by Laos and Maldives. This has opened a debt-laden railway line to China last year as well. David Malpass, president of the World Bank calls the level of debt many countries once as “unsustainable”.

Data says, in 2021, China has officially lent up to $180 billion to low- and middle-income countries from around $40 billion in 2010. Chinese loans have higher interest rates than those from the international institutions like International Monetary Fund or the World Bank or the bilateral loans from the Paris Club countries. These have even shorter repayment windows. Also, the setup is somewhat closer to the commercial loans concerning their conditions of repayment.