| CHINESE LOANS to Latin America have outstripped the combined lending to the region of the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank combined says an Inter-American Dialogue report.
2015 was the second highest year on record for Chinese state-to-state finance in Latin America, with loans to the region topping $29 billion. Much of this finance was announced during Premier Li Keqiang’s 2015 trip to Latin America.
Venezuela has received $65 billion since 2007, or approximately 52 percent of total Chinese bank financing in the region. Another 34 percent of Chinese finance to Latin America went to Argentina, Brazil, and Ecuador.
Chinese banks continue to focus on LAC’s extractive and infrastructure sectors. From 2005 to the present, Chinese policy banks financed $40.3 billion in infrastructure projects (e.g., highway and facility construction), as well as many energy projects with infrastructure components. Energy loans, including China’s oil-backed lending to Venezuela through the China-Venezuela Joint Fund, accounted for $70.2 billion of overall Chinese finance in LAC since 2005.
In addition to China’s many bilateral loans to LAC, Beijing also recently established approximately $35 billion in region-wide funds for infrastructure and other projects. It is unclear whether these funds are a means for restructuring existing bilateral capital or an entirely new source of finance.
The complete report is available for download on the Dialogue website. |
