Analysts: China to Cut Back Lending to Africa in the Post-COVID-19-Era
Chinese infrastructure lending to African countries is widely expected to slow over the next 1-2 years amid mounting debt sustainability concerns, according to analysts interviewed by the South China Morning Post. This would mark a dramatic change over the past twenty years when Beijing emerged as a key source of development finance that helped Africa close its gaping $100 billion-a-year infrastructure deficit. From 2000 to 2018, China extended $148 billion of loans, mostly for infrastructure development, according to data from the China-Africa Research Initiative. But now, as a growing number of those countries are struggling to repay their debts, Chinese creditors are becoming understandably cautious about providing new loans to borrowers facing considerable financial duress. At least 18 countries are currently renegotiating debts with China, with 12 others still in talks to restructure an estimated $28 billion of Chinese loans, according to the New York-based...