Key questions this article answers:
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China is in the crosshairs of debt restructuring talks. But which African countries are its largest borrowers?
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Between 2000 and 2020, China lent African countries about $159 billion. What were the loans obtained from China used for?
Last week, the outgoing World Bank President seemed slightly exasperated as he explained that despite the multilateral lender’s best efforts to reduce the debt burden of emerging economies, they had reached an impasse on debt restructuring with China.
Yet, his reaction was less intense than the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director's. According to her, they would have to “drag China” to work out restructuring terms for the countries that owe them to prevent a “catastrophe”.
Evidently, China is at the heart of debt restructuring conversations. According to the IMF, China is the largest bilateral creditor to most African countries but not the largest creditor. Most of these
