debt

Belt and Road Victim Zambia Sees Finances Implode After Early Pension Payout

The Zambian government passed a law on April 17 that allows citizens to cash out up to 20% of their pensions early. The resulting hit to government finances as claimants raced to pull some $300 million out of the National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) is threatening to topple Zambia’s finances, and endangering a debt relief deal it has been working on since 2020.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (Left) meets Zambia's President Edgar Chagwa Lungu (Right) at the Great Hall of the People on March 30, 2015 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

U.S. Poised to Force Russian Debt Default

The U.S. will close the last avenue for Russia to pay its billions in debt back to international investors on Wednesday, making a Russian default on its debts for the first time since the Bolshevik Revolution all but inevitable.

Inflation Banks - GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - NOVEMBER 03: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen takes part in a CNN television interview in the Action Zone at COP26 on November 03, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland. Day Four of COP26 is billed as Finance Day at the 2021 climate summit in Glasgow. Global …

Sri Lanka Begs China for Off-Ramp from Belt and Road Debt Trap

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Sunday asked Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to restructure payments for the roughly $5 billion Sri Lanka borrowed from China to build wasteful and unproductive projects under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Critics describe BRI as a form of colonialism, a “debt trap” set by imperialist China for Third World countries, and Sri Lanka often serves as Exhibit A for the prosecution.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa