How Much Debt Is South Africa In?

South Africa’s national debt was estimated to be around 242.82 billion dollars in 2020.

How much does South Africa owe China?

African countries borrowed $94.5 billion from China between 2000 and 2014, as they tried to reduce their reliance on the IMF and World Bank, which require market liberalization in exchange for loans. China is a prominent player in the economies of several African countries, wielding enormous influence over a wide range of issues. According to research undertaken in October 2018 as part of the Jubilee Debt Campaign, African countries owed China $10 billion in 2010, rising to almost $30 billion by 2016. China’s lending to African countries is part of a large-scale offshore investment boom that is part of the country’s goal to ensure raw material access and establish itself as an economic superpower.

Angola ($25 billion), Ethiopia ($13.5 billion), Zambia ($7.4 billion), the Republic of Congo ($7.3 billion), and Sudan ($6.4 billion) are the African countries with the highest Chinese debt as of 2020. Between 2000 and 2017, the Chinese loaned a total of US$143 billion to African governments and state-owned firms.

How much money does South Africa owe the world?

From 2002 to 2021, South Africa’s external debt averaged 110754.91 USD million, with a peak of 185357 USD million in the fourth quarter of 2019 and a low of 33262 USD million in the first quarter of 2003.

How much does South Africa owe China 2020?

According to Johns Hopkins University research, African countries owe China $143 billion. China is the single largest creditor to Sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated 20 percent of all African nations’ external debt.

How much is China’s debt?

7.0 trillion dollars), or around 45 percent of GDP. Chinese local governments may have an additional CN 40 trillion ($5.8 trillion) in off-balance sheet debt, according to Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings. According to the International Monetary Fund, debt owed by state-owned industrial businesses accounts for another 74 percent of GDP. A additional 29 percent of GDP is owed by the three government-owned banks (China Development Bank, Agricultural Development Bank of China, and Exim Bank of China). China’s high debt level is a contemporary economic issue.

How much does South Africa owes IMF?

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan of R70 billion to South Africa was not subject to any conditions that would jeopardize the country’s fiscal sovereignty. Government is required to disclose wide spending reports to the IMF, according to Finance Minister Tito Mboweni.

Which country in Africa has the highest debt?

The Asian behemoth has been involved in a number of multi-billion shilling projects over the last decade or two, despite allegations of bribery, a lack of accountability to a certain extent, and excessive interest rates.

Following a recent controversy over whether the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project, which was facilitated by the Chinese, has been value for money thus far, Kenya has not been spared.

1. Angola – According to the African Insider, it is the most indebted African country, with a debt of $25 billion (about Sh2.5 trillion). The southern African country appears to be struggling to service its debt, with reports claiming that the majority of its oil sales are going toward repayment.

2. Ethiopia – With a projected $13.5 billion debt, the Eastern African country comes in second on our list. The loan was mostly utilized to support infrastructure projects.

Who holds Africa’s debt?

China, as Africa’s largest bilateral creditor, controls at least 21% of African debt, with payments to China accounting for roughly 30% of debt service in 2021, as seen in the graph below. Angola alone accounts for over a third of the total.

How much did South Africa borrow from World Bank?

South Africa originally joined the World Bank on December 27, 1945, when it became a member of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the first of the World Bank’s five financial pillars. Despite being a founding member of the World Bank, South Africa did not sign its first loan deal until 1951, for a total of $20,000,000. Since then, the World Bank has approved the transfer of over $4.15 billion in loans to South Africa to support a wide range of development initiatives, with the majority of this cash now committed to energy and resource extraction projects. The vote power of South Africa does not exceed 1% of the total voting power of the World Bank Group’s four composite organizations having voting capacity.

Did South Africa borrow money from China?

China is without a doubt a worldwide force. China is the world’s second-largest economy, despite having recently crossed the $10,000 GDP per capita mark as an upper middle-income country. China has become the most important economic partner for many countries, from Asia to Africa to portions of Europe. In 2009, it surpassed the United States as the largest trade partner for African countries as a whole. It is the African continent’s largest bilateral lender for public sector loans (see figure 1). Despite its massive economic footprint, the public domain sometimes contains very little information on the nature of its lending and investments.

However, two new data sets on Chinese development credit have lately become accessible. The China Africa Research Initiative at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced and International Studies (SAIS-CARI) created the Chinese Loans to Africa (CLA) database, which is presently handled by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center. Between 2000 and 2019, “Chinese financiers inked 1,141 loan pledges… with African governments and their state-owned firms,” according to the database. In the second dataset, How China Lends, a team of researchers from the College of William and Mary’s Aid Data examined one hundred loan agreements between Chinese government entities and twenty-four low- and middle-income countries; African borrowers account for 47 percent of the contracts in the sample. These two databases together give light on the amount, distribution, terms, and entities involved in the link between Chinese financiers and African sovereign governments.

Five Key Takeaways on Chinese Lending in Africa

1. China’s lending portfolio is substantial, but it is shrinking. China lends the most money to African countries bilaterally, but the form of these loans is changing. Between 2000 and 2019, Chinese financiers invested $153 billion to African public sector borrowers, according to SAIS-CARI researchers. Annual credit pledges to Africa peaked in 2013, the year the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was announced, after strong expansion in the 2000s. However, new Chinese credit promises to Africa in 2019 totaled only $7 billion, down 30% from $9.9 billion in 2018. (see figure 1).

Is Ethiopia in debt to China?

According to data provided by the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University and Boston University, Ethiopia borrowed $13.7 billion from Chinese lenders between 2000 and 2019.