Asia

After two decades of loaning African nations billions of dollars for infrastructure projects, China now is focused on extracting payments, straining national budgets and threatening security across the continent. Collectively, African nations have gone from receiving nearly $30 billion in Chinese loans between 2010 and 2014 to paying out $22 billion between 2020 and 2024, a swing of $52 billion, according to a recent analysis by One Data, a group that uses open-source information to examine economic issues around the globe. The report was made for the Development Finance Observatory. China has become a net extractor of funds from low- and lower-middle-income countries as billions of dollars in loans mature at the same time, according to the One Data report. Although the story is...

Recent data shows growing pressure on China’s economy. Factory activity has slowed, the property sector is weak and export-focussed companies face trade barriers in developed markets. Because of this, many companies are looking outside China to expand and maintain stable earnings. China’s economic slowdown has begun to influence its outward investment plans, with India emerging as a potential destination for fresh capital flows. Several Chinese companies are exploring opportunities in the Indian market as domestic growth loses pace and external trade conditions become more restrictive. Recent data shows growing pressure on China’s economy. Factory activity has slowed, the property sector is weak and export-focussed companies face trade barriers in developed markets. Because of t...

China has been a major financier of African infrastructure over the past two decades, supporting large-scale projects in sectors such as hydropower, mining and rail. But this role is changing. As bilateral lending declines and the Belt and Road Initiative shifts towards a ‘small and beautiful’ approach, China’s infrastructure finance is increasingly shaped by new priorities – including digital and green technologies – and a more competitive global landscape. This paper takes a retrospective view of China’s infrastructure finance in Africa to draw policy lessons for today’s infrastructure investors. Using case studies across hydropower, rail, digital and renewable energy in Angola, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya and Zambia, it examines both the development impacts of Chinese-financed pr...