Development Reimagined posted on 17 November 2023 an infographic titled "African Countries Bank Loans from China: Are Chinese Loans to Africa Back to Pre-Covid-19 Levels?"
This infographic contains a wealth of information on Chinese loans (past and present) to African countries. It charts their growth and then decline in dollar value from 2001 through 2022, which countries are borrowing the most from Chinese banks, the number of African countries borrowing from China in any given year, the Chinese financial institutions providing the loans, the sectors financed by the loans, and the proportion of African debt that comes from China, France, the UK and US.
Comment: The answer to the question "are Chinese loans to Africa back to pre-COVID-19 levels?" would seem to be a definitive "no" at least in terms of dollar value. After reaching a high of $28 billion in 2016, China's loans to Africa fell to about $1 billion in 2020 and declined slightly more in 2021 and 2022. Based on recent comments by Chinese officials, there is no indication that China intends to ramp up loans to Africa significantly in the next several years. China's focus now is to finance projects that are "small and beautiful" or "small and smart."
