The 68 countries considered to be the poorest on the planet will have to spend nearly $53 billion this year to pay their creditors, according to projections made by the Green Finance & Development Center. According to data published on Monday by this research center based in Shanghai, 14 billion dollars, or nearly a quarter of this sum, will go to the pocket of China which remains, and by far one of the main donors of background of these countries.
In 2020, China made a rather unprecedented gesture by supporting the G20 debt relief plan for the world’s poorest countries. And had then agreed, between May 2020 and December 2021, to defer some $ 5.7 billion in debt.
Beijing owns more than 50% of the debt of Tonga and Djibouti
But with the end of this moratorium, the countries considered to be the poorest on the planet will have to start honoring their commitments again this year. And in particular to China which is, for 17 of them, the first creditor.
Beijing thus holds 55% of the debt of the Tonga Islands and Djibouti, 52% of that of Laos or even 44% of that of Cambodia. And when China is not the country’s largest creditor, it is never far behind the World Bank.
In detail, eight countries will have to devote more than 2% of their Gross National Income in 2022 to repay part of their debt to China. While Angola and Djibouti stand out at the top of this sad list (with respectively the equivalent of 4.9% and 3.9% of their GNI), five other countries must devote between 2 and 3% to it: Tonga ( 2.8%), Laos (2.8%), Maldives (2.7%), Zambia (2.6%), Republic of Congo (2.4%) and Samoa Islands (2. 3%).
These sums, already staggering for fragile economies, are only the tip of the iceberg. At the end of 2020, the 68 poorest countries on the planet collectively owed $110 billion to Chinese creditors. A sum up 5% in one year.