We find that Chinese loans are not currently a major contributor to debt distress in Africa. Yet many countries have borrowed heavily from China and others. Any new FOCAC loan pledges will likely take Africa’s growing debt burden into account. The 2018 FOCAC will likely pledge additional loans...

New data show that China makes up 22% of public debt stock (2018) and 29% of debt service (2020) in low income Africa. Yet China’s role should not be overestimated. In over half of the 22 countries facing debt distress, China is a small lender. Their debt problems are not made in China In...

Down but not out. China’s loan commitments (2000- 2019) in Africa now total US$ 153 billion. New Chinese loan commitments of US$ 7 billion dipped 30% in 2019 compared with 2018. Avoiding risk. Countries where China reprofiled, restructured, or refinanced existing debt between 2015 and 2019,...

18 major and minor financiers have provided external loans to Zambia and its SOEs since 2000. Loan commitments by Chinese financiers between 2000 and 2020 totaled US$ 10.3 billion, with 63 percent (US$ 6.47 billion) committed just since 2015 Based on project implementation status, we estimate...

The "hidden debt" (US$ 309 billion) and "underreported debt" (US$ 385 billion) problem with Chinese loans is not as serious as the numbers suggested in a recently published AidData report. The median figure for "underreported debt" is 1.8 percent of GDP, however AidData reports that the...

THIS PAPER PROVIDES AN EVALUATION of China’s participation in the G20’s COVID-19 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI). Through analysis of available data, more than 100 interviews, and fieldwork in Angola, Kenya, and Zambia, we argue, with some caveats, that the DSSI was a success....

On March 25, 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world, the heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank proposed that the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies, the Group of 20 (G20), provide breathing space by suspending the collection of debt service on...