Chinese Government cancels RMB 429.3 million of the Government of Mauritania’s outstanding debt obligations

On September 17, 2007, the Chinese Government and the Government of Mauritania signed a debt exemption protocol, which cancelled RMB 429,300,000 of the Government of Mauritania’s outstanding debt obligations. These debt obligations resulted from 6 interest-free loans that the Government of Mauritania previously contracted. All of these loan matured on or before December 31, 2005. The protocol agreement was signed in Nouakchott by Mauritanian Foreign Minister Mohamed Salek Ould Mohamed Lemine and Chinese Ambassador to Mauritania Zhan Xun.

Additional details

1. In 2007, the IMF published a report in which it indicated that, “[w]ith respect to arrears on rescheduled debt to China ($23.6 million), [IMF] staff has been informed that the Chinese authorities have decided to forgive all claims in arrears.” However, this estimate appears to be an outlier. The Chinese Government reports a value of RMB 429,300,000 and the Central Bank of Mauritius reports a value of 57 million euros (which is roughly equivalent to RMB 429,300,000). 1. This debt forgiveness project is not marked as an umbrella record since our dataset does not capture any interest-free loans before this debt forgiveness project, so there is no risk of double counting.

Number of official sources

5

Number of total sources

8