US accuses China of preventing debt relief for African countries

the secretary of the american treasury, Janet Yellenaccused on Friday Chinathe largest creditor of poor and developing countries, to obstruct international efforts to alleviate the debt pressure of those countries, especially those in Africa.

“The obstacle to further progress is a major creditor country, namely China,” the economy secretary said on Friday. Joe Biden at a press conference at the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a Washington.

“So there’s been a lot of discussion about what we can do to bring China to the table and resolve these issues more effectively,” he said, ending the fall meetings of the IMF and the world Bankin which meetings were also held between those responsible for finances of the members of the G7 and the G20.

The IMF and the World Bank regularly ask China, the world’s largest creditor, to participate in the restructuring of the debt of poor and developing countries through the common negotiating framework established by the G20.

“Very few countries” are asking for their debt to be dealt with within the IMF’s common framework, Yellen said earlier in the day at a meeting with her counterparts from eurozone countries. “China is a major factor in this not working” and Beijing “is not engaging constructively,” he said.

The economic damage caused by the pandemic Covid-19 it has led many countries to have to increase their debt again, a problem aggravated by the rise in interest rates to curb inflation.

China has borrowed between $500 billion and $1 trillion, concentrated in low- and middle-income countries, and “no fewer than 44 countries now owe more than 10% of their GDP in debt to Chinese lenders,” an adviser said. Yellen at the end of September.