Chinese overseas lending / SYC
Seychelles: debt owed to China
In 2021, Seychelles is estimated to have owed China $0, equal to 0.0% of its GDP, which ranks it 121 of 126 borrowers in the panel by dollars owed. The estimated stock peaked at $1.22m in 2009.
The estimated stock, 2000 to 2021
The largest single-year move in the estimated stock is 2007, when it rose by $0.40m.
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending. Selection: estimated stock owed to China by Seychelles, 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 2 loan-level records for Seychelles as part of its debt-estimate sample, spanning 2005 to 2008. Comparable commitments are available for 2 of those loans and sum to $12m. 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 1 loans, grace period on 1, maturity on 1, any of the three on 1, and all three together on 1. The earlier file also carries 26 additional project rows for Seychelles outside that sample, so they are not included in this table.
| Year | Project | Commitment, USD | Commitment, source currency | Terms | Creditor | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Y-12E Utility Aircraft Purchase - 2 units ID: SYC_21 · Source: JH CARI | $11m | 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 |
| 2005 | Les Mamelles Housing Project ID: SYC_14 · Source: Gardner et al. (2020) | $1.00m | n/a | rate 4% | grace 4y | maturity 10y | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Concessional · borrower Central government |
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending (2021 Mendeley replication loan file). Selection: 2021 replication loan records mapped to Seychelles 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 Seychelles reports owing to all creditors
No comparison is possible. Seychelles 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.
Chinese restructurings involving Seychelles
6 deals recorded between Seychelles 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
Final rescheduling between China Ex-Im Bank and the Seychelles that covered three different loans: 1) The 1997 Government Concessional Loan that had been restructured in 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2006 2) The 1998 Government Concessional Loan that had been restructured in 2004 3) The 2005 Government Concessional Loan for 8 mn RMB with original terms as follows: 2% interest rate, 10-year maturity, and 4-year grace period The 2011 restructuring increased maturities by roughly 15 years and grace periods by roughtly 10 years. See Garnder et al. (2020) for a hair-cut estimate.
AidData 2.0; Gardner et al. (2020); Acker et al. (2020)
Creditor: China Ex-Im Bank
Fourth rescheduling of the 1997 China Ex-Im Bank RMB 50 mn Government Concessional Loan for the East Coast Housing Project with original loan terms as follows: 4% interest rate, 8-year maturity, and 3-year grace period. In 2006, China Ex-Im Bank granted an additional 2-year grace period extension.
AidData 2.0; Gardner et al. (2020)
Creditor: China Ex-Im Bank
China Ex-Im Bank reschedules the 1998 87.98 mn RMB Government Concessional Loan for the Les Mamelles Housing Project with the following original terms: 4% interest rate, 8-year maturity, and a 4-year grace period. In 2004, China Ex-Im Bank granted a 8-year maturity extension, a 1-year grace period extension and an interest reduction of 200 bps.
AidData 2.0; Gardner et al. (2020)
Creditor: China Ex-Im Bank
Third rescheduling of the 1997 China Ex-Im Bank RMB 50 mn Government Concessional Loan for the East Coast Housing Project with original loan terms as follows: 4% interest rate, 8-year maturity, and 3-year grace period. In 2003, China Ex-Im Bank granted an additional 3-year maturity and 2-year grace period extension.
AidData 2.0; Gardner et al. (2020)
Creditor: China Ex-Im Bank
Second rescheduling of the 1997 China Ex-Im Bank RMB 50 mn Government Concessional Loan for the East Coast Housing Project with original loan terms as follows: 4% interest rate, 8-year maturity, and 3-year grace period. In 2001, China Ex-Im Bank granted an interest rate reduction of 200 bps.
AidData 2.0; Gardner et al. (2020)
Creditor: China Ex-Im Bank
First rescheduling of the 1997 China Ex-Im Bank RMB 50 mn Government Concessional Loan for the East Coast Housing Project with original loan terms as follows: 4% interest rate, 8-year maturity, and 3-year grace period. In 2000, China Ex-Im Bank granted a 3-year maturity and a 3-year grace period extension.
AidData 2.0; Gardner et al. (2020)
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, Hidden Defaults (World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9925). Selection: every recorded restructuring agreement between Seychelles 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