China MFA Spokesman: “The truth is, the Western-dominated commercial creditors and multilateral financial institutions account for the lion’s share of developing countries debt and represent the major source of stress in terms of debt repayment.
Data from the World Bank shows that multilateral financial institutions and commercial creditors hold more than 80% of the sovereign debt of 121 developing countries. According to a report by UK-based charity Debt Justice, African governments owe three times more debt to Western private lenders than to China and are charged double the interest.
Western creditors claim they need to maintain their credit rating and have thus refused to be part of the debt relief and service suspension effort. Since last year, the US has resorted to unprecedented massive interest rate hikes. The world has witnessed a tightening of financial conditions. This has made the severe debt problems of certain countries even worse.
We call on all parties, especially Western commercial creditors and multilateral financial institutions, to help ease the debt burden of developing countries…”
