Belt and Road £385bn debt includes China-Laos railway – funded with loan equivalent to third of Laos’s GDP
Researchers have identified debts of at least $385bn owed by 165 countries to China for Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects, with loans systematically underreported to international bodies such as the World Bank.
The four-year study by US-based research lab AidData said the debt burdens were kept off the public balance sheets through the use of special purpose and semi-private loans, and were “substantially larger than research institutions, credit rating agencies, or intergovernmental organisations with surveillance responsibilities previously understood”.