Chinese overseas lending / DJI
Djibouti: debt owed to China
In 2021, Djibouti is estimated to have owed China $1.21bn, equal to 35.6% of its GDP, which ranks it 58 of 126 borrowers in the panel by dollars owed. The estimated stock peaked at $1.21bn in 2021.
The estimated stock, 2000 to 2021
The largest single-year move in the estimated stock is 2017, when it rose by $437m.
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending. Selection: estimated stock owed to China by Djibouti, 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 9 loan-level records for Djibouti as part of its debt-estimate sample, spanning 2001 to 2017. Comparable commitments are available for 9 of those loans and sum to $1.42bn. 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 4, maturity on 4, any of the three on 4, and all three together on 4. The earlier file also carries 8 additional project rows for Djibouti outside that sample, so they are not included in this table.
| Year | Project | Commitment, USD | Commitment, source currency | Terms | Creditor | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Djibouti Free Trade Zone ID: DJI_17 · Source: JH CARI | $115m | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Merchants Port Holdings Company Limited (CMPort) State-owned enterprise | Loan Commercial · borrower SOE |
| 2016 | Doraleh Multipurpose Port; Damerjog Livestock Port ID: DJI_16 · Source: JH CARI | $344m | n/a | rate 2% | grace 7y | maturity 20y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2016 | 90km Nagad-HollHoll-AliSabieh Power Line; 63 KV; Phase II ID: DJI_15 · Source: JH CARI | $20m | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2013 | China provides $490M loan to Djibouti for railway to Addis Ababa ID: DJI_13 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $490m | USD 490,000,000 | rate 3% | grace 6y | maturity 15y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Commercial · borrower Central government |
| 2013 | Djibouti-Ethiopia Water Pipeline ID: DJI_14 · Source: JH CARI | $322m | n/a | rate 2% | grace 8y | maturity 20y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2012 | China loans $64 million USD to construct ore terminal to facilitate salt export ID: DJI_12 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $64m | USD 64,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
| 2010 | Nagad-Doraleh Port Railway Ramp (Addis-Djibouti railway continuation); 15km ID: DJI_10 · Source: JH CARI | $36m | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | Unspecified Chinese government agency Unspecified Chinese government agency | Loan loan type n/a · borrower Central government |
| 2001 | 100 million RMB loan for private sector cooperation projects ID: DJI_8 · Source: AidData | $12m | RMB 100,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | Unspecified Chinese government agency Unspecified Chinese government agency | Loan loan type n/a · borrower Central government |
| 2001 | Loan for Telecom Investment ID: DJI_9 · Source: AidData, JH CARI | $12m | USD 12,048,000 | rate 2% | grace 3y | maturity 13y | 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 Djibouti 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 Djibouti reports owing to all creditors
Djibouti reported $3.21bn of total external debt to all creditors in 2021, of which $2.41bn is public and publicly guaranteed. The China estimate is 37.7% of the reported external total and 50.2% 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 | $1.21bn | $3.21bn | 37.7% |
| Public and publicly guaranteed | $1.21bn | $2.41bn | 50.2% |
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 Djibouti'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
Chinese restructurings involving Djibouti
1 deal recorded between Djibouti and Chinese state creditors. These are context, not accounting: the source records face-value reduction as a flag rather than a magnitude, so no haircut percentage exists for them, and nothing here is netted off the estimated stock above.
Creditor: China Ex-Im Bank
China Ex-Im Bank reschedules its loan for the Addis-Djibouti railway by granting a 10-year maturity extension and a 90 bps interest reduction.
AidData 2.0; Acker et al. (2020)
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, Hidden Defaults (World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9925). Selection: every recorded restructuring agreement between Djibouti and a Chinese state creditor. Face-value reduction is a 0/1 flag in the source, not a percentage; the badge appears only where the source sets it. Methodology