IMF warns of Maldives foreign debt crisis, after China borrowing ( www.france24.com )

Pro-China President Mohamed Muizzu's predecessor, former president Abdulla Yameen, who ruled for five years until 2018, borrowed heavily from Beijing for construction projects.

That left it owing 42 percent of its more than $3 billion foreign debt to China in 2021, according to the World Bank, citing the Maldives' finance ministry.

benjhm ,

Well if China's "collateral" is infrastructure in Maldives, most of it will be lost to sea-level rise anyway. Maldives political division is/was not just pro-China vs pro-India, it's deny vs understand climate change.

0x815 OP ,

Belt and Road Bailout Lending Reaches Record Levels (study from 2023)

Middle-income countries, which represent 80 percent, or more than USD 500 billion of China’s total overseas lending, pose major balance sheet risks, so Chinese banks have incentives to keep them afloat via bailouts. Low-income countries, which represent only 20 percent of China’s total overseas lending, are less important to the health of the Chinese banking sector and rarely get bailed out.

"Beijing is ultimately trying to rescue its own banks. That’s why it has gotten into the risky business of international bailout lending,” said Carmen Reinhart, one of the study’s authors [...]

Whereas a typical rescue loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) carries a 2 percent interest rate, the average interest rate attached to a Chinese rescue loan is 5 percent.

The study also highlights another controversial issue: whether central banks may be using (unreported) PBOC swap line drawings to artificially inflate their headline foreign exchange reserve numbers. If a borrower can use PBOC swap line drawings to repay dollar- and euro-denominated debts, then such drawings may be especially useful during a balance of payments or debt crisis. However, if a borrower can only use the RMB liquidity from its PBOC swap line as “window dressing” to bolster gross foreign exchange reserves, then its net reserve position and ability to service dollar- and euro-denominated debt remains unchanged. “Much more research is needed to measure the impacts of China’s rescue loans—in particular, the large swap lines administered by the PBOC,” said Brad Parks.

“Beijing has created a new global system for cross-border rescue lending, but it has done so in an opaque and uncoordinated way,” said Parks. “Its strictly bilateral approach has made it more difficult to coordinate the activities of all major emergency lenders, which is concerning because sovereign debt crisis resolution usually requires some level of inter-creditor coordination.”

empireOfLove2 ,
@empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

China's belt-and-road loans are significantly worse than those development loans handed out by the IMF/World Bank. Shorter payback terms and higher interest rates. Seems predatory and mostly meant to make developing countries specifically indebted to China...

olof ,

Because borrowing from the IMF is completely without any strings attached?

eskimofry ,

I guess you are meaning to point out the same question i had, namely what did the IMF do to these nations that they are willingly subjecting themselves to China. It seems like more of the nastiness is hidden behind a veil of spreading democracy/prosperity

eskimofry ,

Yet many countries are tripping and falling over trying to queue up for China's loan. Why? Is the IMF/World bank not necessarily a good option? What goes on behind closed doors in these orgs?

Nomecks ,

Politicians are cheap to bribe.

Amaltheamannen ,

The IMF forces austerity and privitization.

eskimofry ,

So its just an org that goes to bat for rich bastards. Ugh.. I hate that

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