Chinese lending dips to new low in the Pacific Islands: report
- As government revenues decline, China has reined in development financing
- Beijing is shifting priorities as needs for development aid hit ‘all-time high’, expert says
“This mainly reflects a fall in loans – likely because of limited absorption capacity and lower cost options from other development partners,” the report said, adding that the trend probably continued in 2021.
“After two years of [Covid-19] border closures, limited tax revenues and high government expenditure, fiscal space has shrunk. Rising debt sustainability worries have led Pacific countries to seek low-cost concessional financing, most often from traditional partners or multilateral agencies,” it said.
The Pacific Aid Map is a database covering 67 donors and tens of thousands of aid projects in 14 Pacific island sovereign nations, excluding the French territories of New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
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