10 African countries with the highest debt to China (2024)

FAQs

Which African countries have the highest debt to China? ›

Between 2000 and 2020 alone, China lent a total of USD 59.87 billion to African countries and has become the largest creditor to Angola (USD 42.6 billion), Ethiopia (USD 13.7 billion), Zambia (USD 9.8 billion) and Kenya (USD 9.2 billion), which are now struggling to meet their debt obligations, reported Africa Daily.

At the end of 2021, of the 98 countries for whom data was available, Pakistan ($27.4 billion of external debt to China), Angola (22.0 billion), Ethiopia (7.4 billion), Kenya (7.4 billion) and Sri Lanka (7.2 billion) held the biggest debts to China.

The so-called China's "debt trap" in Africa is a narrative trap imposed on China and Africa. Projects and cooperation carried out by China in Africa contributed to Africa's development and the improvement of people's lives. The African people have the biggest say in this.

An Associated Press analysis of a dozen countries most indebted to China — including Pakistan, Kenya, Zambia, Laos and Mongolia — found paying back that debt is consuming an ever-greater amount of the tax revenue needed to keep schools open, provide electricity and pay for food and fuel.

The amount was mainly paid to the Exim Bank of China and China Development Bank. The debt costs for China are among the largest single expenses this fiscal year for the Kenyan government. Kenya owed China $6.31 billion last March after peaking at $7.06 billion in June 2021.

Eritrea borrowed $3 million in 1994 to buy Chinese agricultural machinery. In 2001, China canceled Eritrea's debt by granting Eritrea a grant for the same amount. China has financed a number of development projects, including a 200-bed hospital in the Eritrean capital of Asmara.

$1.7 billion in the context of what other developing countries owe Chinese creditors is actually quite modest.

Chinese lenders account for 12% of Africa's private and public external debt, which increased more than fivefold to $696 billion from 2000 to 2020. China is a major creditor of many African nations, but its lending has fallen in recent years and is set to remain at lower levels.

China currently has military alliances with 6 African states, 4 of which are major oil suppliers: Sudan, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt.

Chinese debt varies widely across the continent. Chinese loans are critical in only a subset of Africa's 54 countries. Data from Boston University Global Development Policy Center shows that Angola and Ethiopia are the two leading recipients of Chinese loans.

How much does Somalia owe China? ›

Somalia: According to the DSSI, Chinese debt, at US$ 83.9 million, is less than four percent of the total in Somalia, where the largest creditors are Italy, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States, all creditors to whom Somalia‑‑a highly indebted poor country that embarked on the HIPC debt relief process only ...

China has become Africa's biggest bilateral lender, holding over $73 billion of Africa's debt in 2020 and almost $9 billion of private debt. Select a country to view and hover over the chart for more details.

Therefore, China's national debt has surged almost three times that of the United States in the past 12 months. In the third spot, Japan has a national debt of $13.36 trillion, indicating a drop of $1.49 trillion YoY.

dynamic and g rowing Mexico will be able THE CURRENT DILEMMA Of Mexico's $98 billion foreign debt, nearly $75 billion is owed to commercial banks, with U.S. banks holding about one-third of the IOUs. The rest is owed to other banks worldwide.

By September 2022, the bilateral debt profile rose with Nigeria owing China $4.09bn. It also owed France $526.48m, Japan $57.11m, Germany $153.06m, and India $27.17m.

Discussions are also ongoing with China about options for debt relief, Tweah said, without giving further details. As of end-2020, Liberia's debt to China amounted to $54 million out of its total external public debt of around $1.2 billion, according to the IMF.

As Kenya has become an increasingly crucial part of China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative, a significant portion of these loans are due to Kenya's two flagship infrastructure projects, the Nairobi-Thika Highway Project and the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).

Ethiopia has an estimated US$13.7 billion in debt to China, much of it advanced by China Exim Bank between 2000 and 2021. The Chinese capital has funded the US$4.5 billion Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway, along with other projects like the capital's Riverside Green Development as well as the light-rail network.

At least $5 billion worth of Chinese loans to Sudan are now in danger as hundreds of thousands of Sudanese flee, and conflict rages in the capital of Khartoum.

Does China support Eritrea? ›

Isaias said that Eritrea and China enjoy a time-honored friendship and China has provided moral and material support to the Eritrean people in their struggle for national independence. Over the past 30 years, Eritrea-China relations have continued to grow.

Ghana External Debt: USD mn data is updated monthly, available from Jan 2012 to Nov 2022. The data reached an all-time high of 29.4 USD bn in Oct 2022 and a record low of 7.5 USD bn in Aug 2012.

The national debt of Ghana was forecast to continuously increase between 2023 and 2028 by in total 62.5 billion U.S. dollars (+81.74 percent). The national debt is estimated to amount to 139 billion U.S. dollars in 2028.

When adding portfolio debts (including the $1 trillion of U.S. Treasury debt purchased by China's central bank) and trade credits (to buy goods and services), the Chinese government's aggregate claims to the rest of the world exceed $5 trillion in total.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday said Moscow has written off the debts of African states worth more than $20 billion.

It's simple. For years, what the U.S. government spent on those things was far greater than the amount of money it had brought in to pay for them. That stacked up to that $31.4 trillion in debt we have now.

South Africa External Debt reached 164.6 USD bn in Dec 2022, compared with 157.9 USD bn in the previous quarter. South Africa External Debt: USD mn data is updated quarterly, available from Dec 1985 to Dec 2022.

While some commitments scaled back from previous years, China promised additional support to combat COVID-19 and announced a goal to increase its imports from Africa to a total of $300 billion in the next three years. China is now Africa's biggest trading partner, with Sino-African trade topping $200 billion per year.

African countries have provided important support for China's endeavors to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests, promote reunification, and achieve national rejuvenation through development.

It's The Economy

Africa is an important investment destination for many leading U.S. industries and Fortune 500 companies, contributing to U.S. jobs and increasing the revenue base for several cities.

Did China pay off Africa debt? ›

In that case, Chinese creditors provided 97% of the debt relief over the two-year period without asking for assurances that Angola wouldn't continue making other repayments. The researcher's third African case study, Kenya, showed how China's DSSI treatment was different from the other two.

It has long been rumored that the Chinese firm Zhongxing Telecommunications (ZTE) has purchased 3 million hectares of land to develop a palm oil plantation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

China at the time was ramping up lending that would soon become part of its $1 trillion “Belt and Road Initiative” to secure supplies of key minerals, win allies abroad and make more money off its U.S. dollar holdings.

Nigeria's total borrowing from China climbed from $1.39 billion to $4.29 billion between June 2015 and December 2022, according to data from Debt Management Office (DMA).

Oni said the reasons for Nigeria's preference for Chinese loans included low-interest rate, long tenor and moratorium period and infrastructure. “The Nigerian government has a tenor period of 20 years and a moratorium period of seven years.

Today in Somalia, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Representative to the United Nations, announced that the United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, will provide more than 41 million dollars in funding to save lives and meet humanitarian needs in Somalia.

Domestic Holders of Federal Debt

The Federal Reserve, which purchases and sells Treasury securities as a means to influence federal interest rates and the nation's money supply, is the largest holder of such debt.

Egypt takes the prize for the most billionaires, and Mauritius boasts by far the highest wealth per capita (average wealth per person) in Africa, at USD 37,500, followed by South Africa at USD 10,880 and Namibia at USD 10,050.

The United States has the world's highest national debt with $30.1 trillion owed to creditors as of the first quarter of 2023.

Many people believe that much of the U.S. national debt is owed to foreign countries like China and Japan, but the truth is that most of it is owed to Social Security and pension funds right here in the U.S. This means that U.S. citizens own most of the national debt.

Where does the US rank in debt? ›

As of 2021 (the latest available data), federal debt reached 115 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), ranking 16^th highest out of 164 countries for which the IMF has data.

China and Japan are the largest foreign investors in American government debt. Together they own $2 trillion — more than a quarter — of the $7.6 trillion in US Treasury securities held by foreign countries.

Under the terms of the treaty negotiated by Trist, Mexico ceded to the United States Upper California and New Mexico.

The Gadsden Purchase, or Treaty, was an agreement between the United States and Mexico, finalized in 1854, in which the United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico.

This treaty, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the war between the United States and Mexico. By its terms, Mexico ceded 55 percent of its territory, including the present-day states California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming.

How much does Russia owe? About $40 billion US in foreign bonds, about half of that to foreigners. Before the start of the war, Russia had around $640 billion US in foreign currency and gold reserves, much of which was held overseas and is now frozen.

Since the government almost always spends more than it takes in via taxes and other revenue, the national debt continues to rise. To finance federal budget deficits, the U.S. government issues government bonds, known as Treasuries.

If China (or any other nation having a trade surplus with the U.S.) stops buying U.S. Treasuries or even starts dumping its U.S. forex reserves, its trade surplus would become a trade deficit—something which no export-oriented economy would want, as they would be worse off as a result.

1. Eritrea: The national debt in this Horn of Africa country stands at 175.1% of the GDP. 2. Cabo Verde: This island nation has a debt-to-GDP ratio of 160.7%.

How much of African debt is Chinese? ›

Chinese lenders account for 12% of Africa's private and public external debt, which increased more than fivefold to $696 billion from 2000 to 2020. China is a major creditor of many African nations, but its lending has fallen in recent years and is set to remain at lower levels.

Nigeria's total borrowing from China climbed from $1.39 billion to $4.29 billion between June 2015 and December 2022, according to data from Debt Management Office (DMA).

According to the newly released World Bank Fiscal Year 2022 audited financial statements for IDA, Nigeria has risen to fourth place, with $13 billion in IDA debt stock as of June 30, 2022.

China's $23 Trillion Local Debt Crisis Threatens Xi's Economy - Bloomberg.

According to data published by London-based investment fintech Invezz, Japan, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and the US are the top five nations with the highest level of government debt.

Zambia, which defaulted on $17 billion of its external debt two years ago, is China's first debt rodeo under the new so-called "Common Framework" program. That makes the debt question in Zambia, Africa's second largest copper producer, bigger than just a single country.

Government data showed Zambia owed Chinese creditors nearly $6 billion of the total of $17 billion external debt at the end of 2021.

Nigeria External Debt: USD mn data is updated quarterly, available from Dec 2006 to Dec 2022. The data reached an all-time high of 41.7 USD bn in Dec 2022 and a record low of 3.3 USD bn in Mar 2007.

By September 2022, the bilateral debt profile rose with Nigeria owing China $4.09bn.