Why continue to maintain high spend on building good relationship when you rival is actively making you look good by comparison for free? Plus, China is also struggling with a lot of simmering...
Why continue to maintain high spend on building good relationship when you rival is actively making you look good by comparison for free? Plus, China is also struggling with a lot of simmering problems that they're trying to tackle with increased spend, so it makes sense.
Beijing’s total lending in 2024 amounted to $2.1 billion, down by more than 90% from its 2016 peak, a report by Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center showed. And Chinese loans to Africa fell by nearly half in 2024 compared to the previous year.
The downward trend began when Chinese loans to Africa fell sharply by more than 60% to $6.8 billion in 2019, around the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chinese loans to Africa have averaged just above $2 billion since 2020, having reached $10 billion or more between 2012 and 2018, Boston University’s database showed. The decline stems from more restraint by Chinese lenders, and borrowing constraints in Africa tied to continued post-pandemic shocks, debt restructuring efforts, and an increasingly volatile international order, said Mengdi Yue, a researcher at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center.
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Angola received nearly 70% of total Chinese loans to Africa in 2024. Most of it was a $690 million commitment from the Export-Import Bank of China for a decade-old coastal road project to transform the capital, Luanda.
The southern African oil producer has been the biggest beneficiary of Chinese loans to Africa, having received more than a quarter of the $180 billion lent to the continent since 2000. Most Chinese loans to Angola are for energy projects, as has been the case with the overall Chinese lending to Africa.
Why continue to maintain high spend on building good relationship when you rival is actively making you look good by comparison for free? Plus, China is also struggling with a lot of simmering problems that they're trying to tackle with increased spend, so it makes sense.
From the article:
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that's a very big drop - which make sense considering their internal money troubles are far from over