Chinese debt relief talks are underway in a number of African countries including Angola, Zambia, Kenya, and Ethiopia among others but you wouldn’t really know it. Officials on all sides aren’t saying much and there’s relatively little press coverage on the issue.

Meantime, a growing number of African countries are signing on to the G20’s common framework while at the same time negotiating debt deferral deals with the IMF and other multilateral creditors. In terms of private creditors, there’s been little to no progress on any meaningful restructuring of the billions of Eurobond obligations owed by African borrowers.

Mark Bohlund, a senior credit research analyst at REDD Intelligence in London, closely follows everything going on in the African debt market. He joins Eric & Cobus to provide an update on China’s role in the debt situation confronting many of Africa’s largest economies.

Show Notes:

• Business Daily: Kenya’s Public debt repayment hits Sh1trn for first time by Constant Munda
• South China Morning Post: Lack of detail in Angola’s debt deals with China could hide future risk by Jevans Nyabiage
• Reuters: An election, a mine deal and China loom over Zambia’s IMF talks by Joe Bavier and Karin Stroheker

About Mark Bohlund:

Mark Bohlund an economist and sovereign/country risk professional with more than a decade in experience covering frontier and emerging market economies. Prior to joining REDD Intelligence, Mark was a Middle East and Africa analyst at Bloomberg, and prior to that, he served as a senior economist at IHS Global Insight. His expertise is in market risk for hard-currency and local-currency debt across a number of frontier and emerging markets.