Risky Business: New Data on Chinese Loans and Africa’s Debt Problem

Image: Flickr, Minustah
Image: Flickr, Minustah

From modest beginnings in 1960, China has recently become a highly visible actor in Africa’s lending landscape.

From modest beginnings in 1960, China has recently become a highly visible actor in Africa’s lending landscape. African borrowers have built roads, installed electrical grids, and modernized their airports with Chinese finance. Yet when commodity prices and growth rates began to tumble in 2015, the specter of a new debt crisis arose. These fears expanded sharply with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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1 Jan 2020