Chinese lenders ‘reluctant’ to offer African countries further debt relief
- Some creditors fear their involvement in a G20 scheme to help poorer nations has left them at a disadvantage compared with international peers
- Kenya’s attempt to extend a debt freeze is thought to have met resistance from the Import-Export Bank of China
Some Chinese lenders have also said they are disadvantaged compared with those from other countries – especially in the Group of 20’s Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), which was introduced last year to help poor nations fight Covid-19.
Deborah Brautigam, a professor of international political economy at Johns Hopkins University and founding director of the China Africa Research Initiative, cited the case of Kenya, where she said the Export-Import Bank of China (Eximbank) is “reluctant to keep disbursing new money into a country that says it can’t make payments on existing loans”.
The country had benefited from a six-month debt freeze worth US$378 million under the scheme and wanted to extend it further when the agreement expired in June.
