Chinese Government cancels $18.4 million of the Government of the STP’s outstanding debt obligations (linked to #71266, #55639, #68381, and #55648)

According to a 2018 Public Debt Management report published by São Tomé and Príncipe (STP)’s Ministry of Planning, Finance and the Blue Economy, $18.4 million of STP’s outstanding debt obligations to the Chinese Government were cancelled on April 12, 2017. It is unclear which loans were forgiven; however, the IMF has characterized China's debt relief package to STP as involving 'pre-HIPC legacy arrears to China of US$18.4 million.' This action was the result of the resumption of bilateral ties between the two countries in late 2016.

Additional details

1. SAIS-CARI identifies the value to the debts that were cancelled as $28 million. The IMF identifies the value to the debts that were cancelled as $18.4 million. AidData relies on the $18.4 million estimate reported by the Government of São Tomé and Príncipe’s Ministry of Planning, Finance and the Blue Economy. 2. This project is not marked as umbrella because the risk of double counting is low. AidData's dataset does not record any loans from China to São Tomé and Príncipe between 2000-2017, so the original loans were likely contracted before 2000. 3. The April 2017 meeting also produced several over agreements (as captured via Project ID#71266, #55639, #68381, and #55648).

Number of official sources

4

Number of total sources

11