GDP Center Round-up: 2023 Global China Database Updates
The Global China Initiative (GCI) manages a suite of five interactive public databases that collectively track hundreds of billions of dollars in Chinese loans and investment to a variety of sectors, including energy and other infrastructure development. GCI manages and updates these databases in a bid to provide transparent information to aid research, education, policymaking, journalism and accountability with regards to China’s overseas development finance and projects around the world.
In 2023, four GCI databases were updated: the China’s Overseas Development Finance (CODF) Database, the Chinese Loans to Latin America and the Caribbean (CLACC) Database, the Chinese Loans to Africa (CLA) Database and the China’s Global Energy Finance (CGEF) Database. These updates reveal new insights into shifting trends in China’s overseas lending and development finance.
Below, see a collection of the 2023 updates to GCI databases:
China’s Overseas Development Finance Database – 2023 Update
The China’s Overseas Development Finance (CODF) Database is the first global, harmonized, validated and geolocated record of Chinese overseas development finance. It covers the years 2008-2021 and includes loan commitments from China’s two main development finance institutions (DFIs), the China Development Bank (CDB) and Export-Import Bank of China (CHEXIM), to governments, inter-governmental bodies, majority state-owned entities (SOEs) and minority SOEs with sovereign guarantees.
In the January 2023 update, the CODF Database recorded 28 new loan commitments in 2020 and 2021 worth a combined value of $10.5 billion, the lowest in recent years. In total, the CODF Database includes 1,099 loans made to 100 countries, totaling $498 billion between 2008-2021. The database details each project’s lender, year, amount and sector. Of these 1,099 projects, 736 have precise geographic footprints, and are shown in a visual map. The remaining 363 projects without precise footprints are included in the full table of projects below the map. The database maps China’s development finance in relation to three types of socially and ecologically sensitive territories – Indigenous peoples’ lands, national protected areas and critical habitats. Explore the data, read the policy brief and read the webinar blog summary.
Chinese Loans to Latin America and the Caribbean Database – 2023 Update
The Chinese Loans to Latin America and the Caribbean (CLACC) Database is an interactive data project tracking loans from CDB and CHEXIM to Latin American and Caribbean governments and SOEs. The database is jointly managed by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center and the Inter-American Dialogue.
In 2022, the CLACC Database recorded three loans worth a total of $813 million to Brazil, Barbados and Guyana. From 2005-2022, Chinese DFI lending to LAC totals $136 billion. The CLLAC Database was expanded in 2023 to include the Caribbean. Explore the data, read the report and read the webinar blog summary.
Chinese Loans to Africa Database – 2023 Update
The Chinese Loans to Africa (CLA) Database is an interactive data project tracking loan commitments from Chinese DFIs, commercial banks, government entities and companies to African governments, SOEs and regional institutions. The CLA Database was started by the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS-CARI). As of March 29, 2021, the CLA Database is managed by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center. Data sources include official government documents, contractor websites, fieldwork, interviews and media sources.
Updated in September 2023, the CLA Database estimates that from 2000-2022, 39 Chinese lenders signed 1,243 loan commitments amounting to $170.08 billion with 49 African governments and seven regional institutions. For the years 2021 and 2022 combined, the CLA Database recorded a total of 16 new loan commitments worth $2.22 billion from Chinese lenders to African government borrowers, signifying two consecutive years of lending to Africa below $2 billion.
It is important to note that CLA Database loan amounts are not equivalent to African government debt, as the database tracks commitments, and not disbursement, repayments or defaults. Explore the data, read the policy brief and read the webinar blog summary.
China’s Global Energy Finance – 2023 Update
The China’s Global Energy Finance (CGEF) Database tracks and displays public financing for global energy projects by CDB and CHEXIM.
Updated in November 2023, the CGEF Database estimates that from 2000-2022, Chinese DFIs provided 331 loans worth $225 billion in energy sector financing to 65 foreign governments. These commitments are international sovereign loans, which means the recipient is a public entity, public majority owned or a private entity with a sovereign guarantee on a loan.
Notably, for the year 2022, the CGEF Database recorded a total of zero new energy sector loan commitments from CDB and CHEXIM to foreign governments, signifying two consecutive years of no new lending. Explore the data, read the policy brief and read the webinar blog summary.
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