Chinese Government pledges $950 million line of credit

On 30 June, 2009, the Zimbabwean Government, represented by Minister of Finance Tendai Biti, announced that the Zimbabwean government would receive an interest-free line of credit from the Chinese Government worth $950 million to help rebuild the Zimbabwean economy (See: China gives Zimbabwe nearly $1bln line of credit, PM Tsvangirai says and China‟s Growing Relationship With Francophone Africa). This was confirmed by the Chinese State Council on 6 July, 2009 (See: 津巴布韦总统穆加贝高度赞扬中国对津贷款援). However, it appears that this line of credit never materialized, as no draw down from any such line of credit is identified in the registry of outstanding debt obligations published by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development in its 2019 Blue Book Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure.

Additional details

AidData codes the loan as interest-free because of the statement that the loan came with 'no strings attached' (See: 'President Mugabe of Zimbabwe highly praised China's loan assistance to Zimbabwe').This line of credit project has been marked as umbrella to avoid double counting any linked or subsidiary projects. Since loan terms for the interest-free loan are unavailable, AidData has set maturity period to 20 years by default and grace period to 10 years by default per China's Foreign Assistance White Paper (http://www.cidca.gov.cn/2018-08/06/c_129925064_3.htm) which states that the maturity period of interest-free loans is 20 years, with a drawdown period of 5 years, grace period of 5 years, and repayment over 10 years. AidData treats the drawdown period as providing 5 years of additional grace.

Number of official sources

2

Number of unofficial sources

4