![]() dollars that it used to pay interest on loans and to buy major commodities like oil. That refusal added to the drain on Zambia’s foreign cash reserves, the stash of mostly U.S. It refused at first to even join in multinational talks, negotiating separately with Zambia and insisting on confidentiality that barred the country from telling non-Chinese lenders the terms of the loans and whether China had devised a way of muscling to the front of the repayment line.Īmid this confusion in 2020, a group of non-Chinese lenders refused desperate pleas from Zambia to suspend interest payments, even for a few months. In the past under such circumstances, big government lenders such as the U.S., Japan and France would work out deals to forgive some debt, with each lender disclosing clearly what they were owed and on what terms so no one would feel cheated.īut China didn’t play by those rules. ![]() The loans boosted Zambia’s economy but also raised foreign interest payments so high there was little left for the government, forcing it to cut spending on healthcare, social services and subsidies to farmers for seed and fertilizer. ![]() “ China has moved in and left this geopolitical instability that could have long-lasting effects.”Ī case study of how it has played out is in Zambia, a landlocked country of 20 million people in southern Africa that over the past two decades has borrowed billions of dollars from Chinese state-owned banks to build dams, railways and roads. “In a lot of the world, the clock has hit midnight,” said Harvard economist Ken Rogoff. 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.Įxperts predict that unless China begins to soften its stance on its loans to poor countries, there could be a wave of more defaults and political upheavals. Two of them, Zambia and Sri Lanka, have already gone into default, unable to make even interest payments on loans financing the construction of ports, mines and power plants. On top of that is the recent discovery that borrowers have been required to put cash in hidden escrow accounts that push China to the front of the line of creditors to be paid.Ĭountries in AP’s analysis had as much as 50% of their foreign loans from China and most were devoting more than a third of government revenue to paying off foreign debt. And it’s draining foreign currency reserves these countries use to pay interest on those loans, leaving some with just months before that money is gone.īehind the scenes is China’s reluctance to forgive debt and its extreme secrecy about how much money it has loaned and on what terms, which has kept other major lenders from stepping in to help. We all love the convenience of downloads but we felt the album should also be enjoyed as a whole, so we’ve included a single file of the whole album, as well as the individual tracks, in each download package.Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close MenuĪ 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.Īn Associated Press 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. Enjoy the album in the highest audio qualityĭownload: FLAC lossless including an ‘album experience’ single file of the whole album.ĭownload: MP3 High bitrate MP3 files including an ‘album experience’ single file of the whole album. The USB stick contains the album in 24bit Wav from the orginal 24bit masters, the whole album in lossless FLAC and also the complete album as a single WAV file so you can hear the album as it was intended to be heard.ĭownload: Wav 24 bit identical to the original 24bit masters including an ‘album experience’ single file of the whole album. Limited Edition USB stick in a presentaion box featurng the album logo. Includes free album MP3 download.ĬD Deluxe Digipak with a beautiful 24 page booklet and lyrics. We’ve made the album available in a number of formats:ĭouble vinyl in gatefold sleeve pressed on heavyweight 180g vinyl.
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