Climate Home News quoted Aldo Caliari on China's recent commitment to donate a quarter of its IMF pandemic recovery funds, known as Special Drawing Rights, to African countries. Read an excerpt below or read the full article here.

China ‘trumps’ the west by pledging larger share of IMF relief to African nations

In his opening speech to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) in Senegal, president Xi Jinping pledged to donate 600 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines and redistribute $10 billion worth of rare IMF reserve assets, known as special drawing rights (SDRs), to African countries. China’s allocation of 29bn SDRs is worth about $40bn.

“It puts pressure on western donors. It will be difficult for advanced economies to justify that they are not in a position to contribute that share when China is able to do it,” Aldo Caliari, of the Jubilee USA Network, an NGO which advocates for debt relief, told Climate Home News.

The IMF injected $650bn of SDRs into the global economy in August to help countries recover from Covid-19 by buying vaccines, alleviating debt and investing in sustainable development.

 

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