Chinese overseas lending / MYS
Malaysia: debt owed to China
In 2021, Malaysia is estimated to have owed China $7.15bn, equal to 1.9% of its GDP, which ranks it 20 of 126 borrowers in the panel by dollars owed. The estimated stock peaked at $7.15bn in 2021. Of the 2021 total, $1.03bn is a drawn People’s Bank of China swap-line balance, a central-bank liability rather than a loan to the government.
The estimated stock, 2000 to 2021
The largest single-year move in the estimated stock is 2018, when it rose by $1.77bn.
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending. Selection: estimated stock owed to China by Malaysia, by year and instrument, 2000 to 2021. Zeros are estimated zeros (no known loans outstanding), not missing values. Methodology
Against what Malaysia reports owing to all creditors
No comparison is possible. Malaysia has no row in the World Bank International Debt Statistics table. There is no reported all-creditor stock to measure the China estimate against, so the ratio is n/a, not zero and not a hundred percent. This is a difference in the scope of the two datasets, not evidence of anything hidden. The two-sources page lists every borrower in this position.
People’s Bank of China swap drawings
Malaysia carried a drawn swap balance in 2 years of the panel, peaking at $1.10bn. A drawing is a liability to another central bank, and it is not netted out of a headline gross reserves figure.
| Year | Drawn balance | Share of the year’s China total |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $1.10bn | 16.2% |
| 2021 | $1.03bn | 14.4% |
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending. Selection: every year in which Malaysia carried a drawn PBoC swap-line balance above zero. Methodology
The same balance measured against gross international reserves, for every country that has drawn