 "China's Belt and Road Initiative is a pet project of President Xi Jinping. AP")
Over the years, China has made no secret of its habit of doling out the big bucks.
Beijing has set aside over $1 trillion to emerging nations as part of its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Beijing views the BRI, a pet project of Xi Jinping, as a means of countering Western influence in Europe, Asia and West Africa.
India, which has constantly opposed the project, has warned about the ‘dangers of unsustainable financing’ and a countries being trapped in a ‘vicious debt cycle.’
But that hasn’t stopped many nations including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Angola, Ethiopia, and Kenya from enjoying China’s ’largesse,’ according to the World Bank International Debt Report 2023.
The report noted that around 60 per cent of low-income countries are at high risk of debt distress or already in it.
Knowing what a country owes and to whom is essential for better debt management and sustainability,” Haishan Fu, chief statistician of the World Bank and director of the World Bank’s Development Data Group was quoted as saying by DTE.
“The first step in avoiding a crisis is having a clear picture of the challenge. And when problems arise, clear data can guide debt restructuring efforts to get a country back on track towards economic stability and growth,” Fu added.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“Debt transparency is the key to sustainable public borrowing and accountable, rules-based lending practices, which are vital to ending poverty on a liveable planet.”
The report also noted that China itself borrowed $4 trillion from 2012 to 2022.
But which low and middle-income countries are most in debt to China? How vulnerable are they?
Let’s take a closer look: