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Opinion

Africa needs more help with its Chinese debts

Waiver of interest-free loans does little to lighten burden amid slowing growth

| China
A cargo train departs the port depot in Mombasa for Nairobi in 2017: Vanity projects have ballooned into costly white elephants.   © AP

Liam Gibson is the Taipei-based founder of Policy People, an online platform for think tank professionals.

As interest rates climb higher and the global economy sags toward recession, developing nations in debt distress are stumbling under the weight of some $237 billion due to foreign creditors, according to Bloomberg bond data. Sri Lanka may have been among the first to buckle, but Kenya and others are finding it hard to keep their footing, too.

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