D.A.T.A.

Data Analysis for Transparency and Accountability 

The IMF COVID-19 Surveillance Monitor

One of the core activities of the IMF is to oversee the international monetary and financial system and monitor the economic and financial policies of its 190 member countries, known as surveillance. To measure the extent to which IMF country surveillance since the start of COVID-19 has identified risks and mitigation measures to help borrower countries improve health outcomes, support vulnerable people and firms and address climate change, the GDP Center and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) designed an interactive data project, the IMF COVID-19 Surveillance Monitor.

Chinese Loans to Africa Database

The Chinese Loans to Africa (CLA) Database is an interactive data project started by the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS-CARI).

Since 2007, SAIS-CARI researchers have collected, cleaned and analyzed publicly-available data to create a database on Chinese lending to Africa. The data sources include official government documents, contractor websites, fieldwork, interviews, and media sources. Between 2000 and 2018, SAIS-CARI estimated Chinese financiers signed 1,077 loan commitments worth US$148 billion with African governments and their state owned enterprises. The figures are not equivalent to African government debt, as the database does not track disbursement or repayment. As of March 29, 2021, the Chinese Loans to Africa Database is managed by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center.

Suggested citation: China Africa Research Initiative and Boston University Global Development Policy Center. 2021. Chinese Loans to Africa Database, Version 2.0. Retrieved from http//:chinaafricaloandata.bu.edu/.

China, Debt, Climate and Nature: Opportunities for Financial Stability

This interactive explores opportunities for China to alleviate debt burdens in exchange for debtor nation commitments to climate change mitigation and/or adaptation and environmental protection through “debt-for-climate” and “debt-for-nature” swaps. In the Global Outlook homepage, users can view the characteristics of the 41 countries assessed according to their potential for debt-for-climate and/or debt-for-nature swaps with China. Additionally, in the Explore tab, users can create maps and scatterplots with the data from our analysis (including financial, environmental, and opportunity data) to see how these characteristics vary between countries, and how the relationships between different variables may be useful for prioritizing countries for green debt relief strategies. In the Data tab, users can find a description of all the variables included in this interactive, as well as the original sources for the data. In the About tab, learn more about this project and read a more detailed guide on how to utilize all the features on this site.

Suggested citation: B. A. Simmons, R. Ray, H. Yang, K. P. Gallagher (2021) China can help solve the debt and environmental crises. Science 371: 466-468.

China’s Overseas Development Finance Database

The China’s Overseas Development Finance Database is the first global, harmonized, validated, and geolocated record of Chinese overseas development finance from 2008-2019. The dataset includes equal time before and after the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 and all loans to governments, inter-governmental bodies, and state-owned entities from China’s two policy banks with overseas lending: China Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of China. The interactive database maps 615 Chinese overseas development projects, detailing each project’s lender, year, amount, sector, and length in kilometers, where applicable. It also allows users to examine the geolocation of China’s overseas development projects and their proximity to indigenous peoples’ lands, critical habitats, and national protected areas. The database shows Chinese policy banks provided close to half a trillion dollars in development finance to foreign governments from 2008—2019, nearly matching the World Bank’s lending in the same period.

Suggested citation: Ray, Rebecca, Kevin P. Gallagher, William Kring, Joshua Pitts, and B. Alexander Simmons. “Geolocated Dataset of Chinese Overseas Development Finance.” Manuscript submitted for publication. 

Ray, Rebecca, Kevin P. Gallagher, William Kring, Joshua Pitts, and B. Alexander Simmons. “Geolocated Dataset of Chinese Overseas Development Finance.” Boston, MA: Boston University Global Development Policy Center. Online database. doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/7WUXV.

China’s Global Power Database

China’s Global Power Database documents all overseas power plants financed through Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) and/or China’s two global policy banks, the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China. The database maps these projects by estimated CO₂ emissions, lender, deal type, technology, capacity and operating status of the power plants. At the end of 2018, Chinese capital has involved upwards of 777 power plants overseas, providing a total 186.5 GW of power generation capacity. Among these power plants, Chinese participation ranges from debt finance to FDI, including mergers and acquisitions and greenfield investments.

Suggested citation: Gallagher, Kevin P., Li, Zhongshu, Chen, Xu, Ma, Xinyue (2019), “China’s Global Power Database,” Global Development Policy Center, Boston University.

The IMF COVID-19 Recovery Index

The IMF COVID-19 Recovery Index is an updating inter-active data project that measures the extent to which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommends, or conditions borrowing countries increase efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, protect vulnerable people and firms, and stage a green recovery in accordance with/from official speeches and directives from IMF leadership and fiscal guidance notes produced by the IMF Fiscal Affairs Department. The Recovery Index is a composite based on three equally weighted scores for each IMF country program: health, protecting the vulnerable, and a green recovery, as discussed in Gallagher and Maldonado Carlin (2020). This interactive allows the user to browse the IMF‘s overall score and its component parts, as well as overall scores and component parts for each borrowing country. The closer the total composite or independent component is to three, the more attention and support the IMF is giving to public health, vulnerable people, and a green recovery. The Index will be regularly updated on an ongoing basis, and was last updated in March 2021.

Suggested Citation: Gallagher, Kevin P and Franco Maldonaldo Carlin (2020), “The Role of IMF in the Fight Against COVID-19: The IMF COVID-19 Response Index,” COVID Economics, CEPR Press, Issue 42, 19 August 2020. 

China’s Global Energy Finance

The China’s Global Energy Finance Database is an interactive data project that exhibits financing for global energy projects by China’s two global policy banks—the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China.

China’s global policy banks do not currently publish these data at a disaggregated level. For this project, the GDP Center combined its estimates from the China-Latin America Finance Database with the Chinese Loans to Africa Database to estimate levels of China’s global energy finance.

Suggested Citation: Gallagher, Kevin P (2021), “China’s Global Energy Finance,” Global China Initiative, Boston University

China-Latin America Finance Database

Now updated with 2020 data, the China-Latin America Finance Database is an interactive database tracking includes loans from China’s two global policy banks, the China Development Bank and China Export-Import Bank, to Latin American and Caribbean governments and state-owned enterprises. The database is the result of collaboration between the Inter-American Dialogue and the Global China Initiative at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center.

Suggested citation: Gallagher, Kevin P. and Margaret Myers (2021) “China-Latin America Finance Database,” Washington: Inter-American Dialogue.

Global Financial Safety Net Tracker

Produced in partnership with Freie Universitat, Berlin and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Global Financial Safety Net Tracker is an interactive data visualization that measures the annual lending capacity of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), central banks and regional financial arrangements (RFAs) and the total amount of financing to combat the COVID-19 crisis via loans from the IMF, RFAs, and currency swaps. The GFSN Tracker is regularly updated, and was last updated in March 2021.

Suggested citation: Kring, W; Mühlich, L; Fritz, B; Gallagher, K; Pitts, J. “Global Financial Safety Net Tracker,” Global Development Policy Center, Boston University.

Fueling Global Energy Finance: The Emergence of China in Global Energy Investment

This data visualization is the corresponding interactive to the article “Fueling Global Energy Finance: The Emergence of China in Global Energy Investment” published in Energies in October 2018.

Suggested citation: Gopal, S.; Pitts, J.; Li, Z.; Gallagher, K.P.; Baldwin, J.G.; Kring, W.N. “Fueling Global Energy Finance: The Emergence of China in Global Energy Investment,” Global Development Policy Center, Boston University.

Beyond Bretton Woods? Complementarity & Competition in the International Economic Order

The Beyond Bretton Woods Database is the corresponding interactive database to the Development & Change special issue “Beyond Bretton Woods? Complementarity & Competition in the International Economic Order” published in January 2019.

Suggested citation: Kring, W. and Gallagher, K. (2019) “Beyond Bretton Woods? Complementarity & Competition in the International Economic Order,” Global Development Policy Center, Boston University. 

Greening Development Lending in the Americas Interactive Data

The Greening Development Lending in the Americas Database is the corresponding interactive database to the journal article “Greening Development Lending in the Americas: Trends & Determinants” published in Ecological Economics, December 2018. The data represented in these interactive images is from 2007-2016.

Suggested citation: Gallagher, K. and Yuan, F. (2018) “Greening Development Lending in the Americas,” Global Development Policy Center, Boston University. 

Renewable Energy: The Trillion Dollar Opportunity for Chinese Overseas Investment

The Renewable Energy: The Trillion Dollar Opportunity for Chinese Overseas Investment Database is the corresponding interactive database to the journal article “Renewable Energy: The Trillion Dollar Opportunity for Chinese Overseas Investment” published in China & World Economy (CWE), December 2018.

Suggested citation: Munoz, M., Gallagher, K. and Li, Z. (2018) “Renewable Energy: The Trillion Dollar Opportunity for Chinese Overseas Investment,” Global Development Policy Center, Boston University. 

Regulating Capital Flows in Emerging Markets: the IMF and the Global Financial Crisis

The purpose of this project is to empirically examine the extent to which the IMF has changed its official policy advice to developing countries on managing capital flows in the wake of the financial crisis. Coders analyzed the IMF’s annual “Article IV” reports. 

Suggested citation: Gallagher, K., & Tian, Y. (2017). Regulating capital flows in emerging markets: The IMF and the global financial crisis. Review of Development Finance.