Saturday, August 1, 2020

Djibouti's China Debt

The China-Africa Project posted on 31 July 2020 an analysis titled "Djibouti's Chinese Debt" by Thierry Pairault, emeritus research director at France's National Centre of Scientific Research.

Djibouti financed its $550 million portion of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway through its own funds ($58 million) and a commercial loan of $492 million from China's Export-Import Bank.  The project is complete but its operation has been disappointing because of the uncertain supply of electricity to run the trains and a lack of products for export.  As the debt burden grows, negotiations are underway to renegotiate the terms of the loan.