China’s Overseas Lending

Sebastian Horn, Carmen Reinhart and Christoph Trebesch

No 26050, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Compared with China’s pre-eminent status in world trade, its role in global finance is poorly understood. This paper studies the size, characteristics, and determinants of China’s capital exports building a new database of 5000 loans and grants to 152 countries, 1949-2017. We find that 50% of China’s lending to developing countries is not reported to the IMF or World Bank. These “hidden debts” distort policy surveillance, risk pricing, and debt sustainability analyses. Since China’s overseas lending is almost entirely official (state-controlled), the standard “push” and “pull” drivers of private cross-border flows do not apply in the same way.

JEL-codes: F21 F34 F42 F6 G15 H63 N25 O10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna and nep-tra
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (42)

Published as Sebastian Horn & Carmen M. Reinhart & Christoph Trebesch, 2021. "China's overseas lending," Journal of International Economics, vol 133.

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Related works:
Journal Article: China's overseas lending (2021)
Working Paper: China’s Overseas Lending (2020)
Working Paper: China's Overseas Lending (2019)
Working Paper: China's overseas lending (2019)
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