Chinese overseas lending / CIV
Cote d'Ivoire: debt owed to China
In 2021, Cote d'Ivoire is estimated to have owed China $4.10bn, equal to 5.6% of its GDP, which ranks it 30 of 126 borrowers in the panel by dollars owed. The estimated stock peaked at $4.10bn in 2021.
The estimated stock, 2000 to 2021
The largest single-year move in the estimated stock is 2021, when it rose by $943m.
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending. Selection: estimated stock owed to China by Cote d'Ivoire, by year and instrument, 2000 to 2021. Zeros are estimated zeros (no known loans outstanding), not missing values. Methodology
Historical loan records from the 2021 release
These records come from the 2021 HRT Mendeley replication release, not the November 2025 refreshed stock panel charted above. The refresh uses the updated Franz, Horn, Parks, Reinhart and Trebesch methodology, so this table cannot be reconciled to the chart. The earlier release marks 13 loan-level records for Cote d'Ivoire as part of its debt-estimate sample, spanning 2001 to 2017. Comparable commitments are available for 13 of those loans and sum to $2.61bn. These are gross commitments, not outstanding debt stocks. The stock methodology applies disbursement and amortisation profiles, with imputation where loan terms are missing, so the commitment sum must not be compared with the stock above. See the methodology. Terms are sparse by source: interest rate appears on 4 loans, grace period on 2, maturity on 3, any of the three on 4, and all three together on 2. The earlier file also carries 24 additional project rows for Cote d'Ivoire outside that sample, so they are not included in this table.
| Year | Project | Commitment, USD | Commitment, source currency | Terms | Creditor | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Odienne Road Asphalting; 71km ID: CIV_37 · Source: JH CARI | $70m | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan loan type n/a · borrower Central government |
| 2017 | Agboville-Rubino-Ceshi Road Asphalting ; 51km ID: CIV_36 · Source: JH CARI | $66m | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan loan type n/a · borrower Central government |
| 2016 | Abidjan Video Surveillance Platform ID: CIV_35 · Source: JH CARI | $52m | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan loan type n/a · borrower Central government |
| 2015 | National power grid upgrade project Tranche A ID: CIV_33 · Source: BU Energy, JH CARI | $602m | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan loan type n/a · borrower Central government |
| 2015 | National power grid upgrade project Tranche B ID: CIV_34 · Source: BU Energy, JH CARI | $181m | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan loan type n/a · borrower Central government |
| 2015 | Ebimpe; Abidjan; Abobo Anyama Olympic Stadium ID: CIV_32 · Source: JH CARI | $40m | n/a | rate 0% | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Ministry of Commerce (MofCom) Chinese government | Loan Zero-Interest Loan · borrower Central government |
| 2014 | China loans Ivory Coast 89 million USD for water infrastructure ID: CIV_31 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $89m | USD 89,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan loan type n/a · borrower Central government |
| 2013 | China Exim Bank offers 793 million USD loan for expansion of Abidjan Port ID: CIV_30 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $793m | USD 793,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2012 | China loans Cote D'Ivoire 472.6 million USD for the Soubre Dam ID: CIV_27 · Source: AidData, BU Energy, JH CARI | $473m | USD 472,600,000 | rate 2% | grace 9y | maturity 20y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2012 | China loans Cote D'Ivoire for water supply project in Abidjan ID: CIV_28 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $98m | XOF 50,000,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2011 | China provides loan for highway in Cote D'Ivoire ID: CIV_25 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $115m | USD 114,700,000 | rate 2% | grace n/a | maturity 20y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2007 | China Exim Bank finances e-project on good governance in Cote D'Ivoire ID: CIV_12 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $30m | USD 30,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2001 | Gold mining development ID: CIV_6 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $1.21m | RMB 10,000,000 | rate 3% | grace 5y | maturity 15y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower SOE |
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending (2021 Mendeley replication loan file). Selection: 2021 replication loan records mapped to Cote d'Ivoire and flagged DebtEstimateSample = 1 in that release. This is an earlier source universe, not the records used for the November 2025 refreshed stock panel. CommitmentUSD is a gross commitment flow and is not comparable to the charted stock. Commitment stays in its source currency, and ProjectDescription is rendered as free-text data from the file. Methodology
Against what Cote d'Ivoire reports owing to all creditors
Cote d'Ivoire reported $29.77bn of total external debt to all creditors in 2021, of which $23.19bn is public and publicly guaranteed. The China estimate is 13.8% of the reported external total and 17.7% of the reported public and guaranteed stock. These are ratios of two different measurements, one estimated and one borrower-reported, and they are not a share of a single consistent total.
| Measure, 2021 | Estimated, owed China | Reported, all creditors | Ratio, % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total external debt | $4.10bn | $29.77bn | 13.8% |
| Public and publicly guaranteed | $4.10bn | $23.19bn | 17.7% |
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending (estimated stocks), and World Bank International Debt Statistics, borrower-reported via the Debtor Reporting System (all-creditor stocks). Selection: estimated external and PPG stock owed to China in 2021 against Cote d'Ivoire's reported DT.DOD.DECT.CD and DT.DOD.DPPG.CD for the same year. Drawn swap balances are excluded from the estimated column: they are a central-bank liability the Debtor Reporting System's long-term-debt concepts do not carry. Methodology