China’s development banks reduce commitment to Africa

Chinese development banks and state-controlled banks lent $7 billion to African nations in 2019, new figures from the China Africa Research Initiative show. That’s a 30 percent drop from 2018 – and the lowest amount since 2010. $5 of the $7 billion went to projects in the transportation and energy sectors. The top five borrowers were Ghana, South Africa, Egypt – with just over $1.2 billion each – and Cote d’Ivoire, and Nigeria, with more than $550 million each. Strikingly, many of the African borrowers that had negotiated debt reschedulings with China in previous years did not receive new loans, including the Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. Others, including Angola, Zambia, Kenya, and Cameroon, received relatively small loans.