Although China is the continent’s largest bilateral creditor, most debt is in the hands of private Western holders of African debt, concludes a study conducted by researchers from Columbia University and the University of Oxford.
Even over recent years, as shrill claims about China engaging in “debt-trap diplomacy” have been repeated by think tanks not exactly known for their concern for humanity, it turns out that “[Chinese debt] is not the most rapidly growing segment of debt. Other credit lines have grown a lot more in recent years, especially those towards commercial creditors.”
“These are bondholders,” continued Harry Verhoeven, “people from London, Frankfurt and New York who are buying African debt. That segment in the last couple of years has grown much faster than any liabilities that African states owe other creditors.”
