“Chinese bank loans cripple Latin America and Africa, says NGO”, 26^th February 2020

…Countries in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa have taken out at least $152bn in oil, mineral and metal-backed loans from China since 2004…

The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) calculated that, including loans from other countries such as Russia and global commodity traders, the total amounted to $164bn.

Two Chinese state banks, China Development Bank and Exim Bank, alone accounted for 77 percent of all the loans, the NRGI said in its report…

Some analysts have raised alarm bells in recent years over debt in emerging markets, which has more than doubled to $72 trillion over the past decade, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says the number of countries in, or at risk of, debt distress has risen steadily.

The NRGI said such loans appealed to developing countries that have limited access to global capital markets. However, the advantages, such as cheaper terms, were undermined by weak governance and opaque conditions.

"While these loans have often provided much-needed infrastructure, such as roads and hydro-dams, in many cases they have led to crippling levels of debt and the risk of losing collateral that is itself worth more than the value of the loan," wrote co-author David Mihalyi, a senior economic analyst with the NRGI…