Posted on 05/18/2023 7:12:43 PM PDT by anthropocene_x
A dozen poor countries are facing economic instability and even collapse under the weight of hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign loans, much of them from the world’s biggest and most unforgiving government lender, China.
Analysis of a dozen countries most indebted to China — including Pakistan, Kenya, Zambia, Laos and Mongolia — found paying back that debt is consuming an ever-greater amount of the tax revenue needed to keep schools open, provide electricity and pay for food and fuel.
In Kenya, the government has held back paychecks to thousands of civil service workers to save cash to pay foreign loans. The president’s chief economic adviser tweeted last month, “Salaries or default? Take your pick.”
Since Sri Lanka defaulted a year ago, a half-million industrial jobs have vanished, inflation has pierced 50% and more than half the population in many parts of the country has fallen into poverty.
In Pakistan, millions of textile workers have been laid off because the country has too much foreign debt and can’t afford to keep the electricity on and machines running.Mohammad Tahir, who was laid off six months ago from his job at a textile factory in the Pakistani city of Multan, says he can no longer bear to see his family of four go to bed night after night without dinner. “I’ve been facing the worst kind of poverty,” said Tahir, who was recently told Pakistan’s foreign cash reserves have depleted so much that it was now unable to import raw materials for his factory. “I have no idea when we would get our jobs back.”
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Sierra Leone will be facing that soon and they will default. The Chinese will just nationalize the mines they are operating and take what they want. You can see the military base they have on Google just across from the main military hospital in Freetown.
Just stop paying. Nationalize anything they’ve bought in your sh*t hole countries (ports, mines, farmland, whatever) and watch China collapse into chaos and ruin within 90 days. It may also push them to the brink of using their nukes, so there is that…
Really? No mention of the International Monetary Fund? And more loans AND austerity programs?
"Sri Lanka orders more austerity measures pending IMF bailout"
Source: https://www.laprensalatina.com/sri-lanka-orders-more-austerity-measures-pending-imf-bailout/
"Sri Lanka secures its 17th IMF bailout package of USD 3 billion"
Source: https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/03/21/sri-lanka-secures-its-17th-imf-bailout-package-of-usd-3-billion/
They may be doing the planet a favor if they did.
AP propaganda .
Should the USA be run by a deficit loving Congress?
I imagine that’s why everyone wants to dump the dollar?
No, it’s not propaganda.
Pakistan is collapsing. Sri Lanka collapsed.
The Chinese loans didn’t cause it, but were a big contributor.
Both countries collapsed because the rulers wanted vanity projects and China gave them easy money (with string attached) to do it.
Sri Lanka had a lot going for it until Rajapakshe decided to build a vanity port and a new capital. Huge billion dollar boondocks.
Most sensible banks refused to loan him money for this, but the Chinese gave them the money with the condition that if they failed, then China got the land.
Oh and the loans were for the Sri Lankans to pay Chinese companies to build and build with China made materials.
Pakistan is a similar story but on a wider scale.
Always tempting to blame China, but the collapse is due to borrower socialism and the international war on energy.
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