China’s future in the global growth story

Emerging markets were obliged to reassess the current global financial framework as a result of Sri Lanka's devastating debt problem and the protracted wait before receiving a bailout from foreign creditors. It was observed that the world needs a more effective financial system so that China can have a bigger impact on crisis resolution and the voice of developing nations. According to Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Sabry, it took about eight months from the beginning of negotiations in September 2021 to get assurances from creditors until finally receiving the first payment as part of the US$3 billion IMF rescue in April. The nation may have disintegrated at that point since it was under significant stress. Therefore, it's crucial that anything ready for usage is made available.

Despite receiving a $600 million loan from the World Bank in April of last year, Sri Lanka made its first-ever financial default in May of 2022. As a result, in July, it became the first post-coronavirus country to declare bankruptcy.

According to the Institute of International Finance, the coronavirus pandemic increased global debt to over an unprecedented level of $300 trillion in 2022, making developing countries particularly vulnerable as a result of the significant amounts accumulated, as well as declining currencies and rising interest rates.

The IMF and other international financial institutions continue to face basic issues, including a mismatch in credit cycles and a lack of sufficient global emergency liquidity for developing nations, which has created a huge gap that needs to be filled. The US monetary policy largely forms the basis of the global credit cycle. But US monetary policy is made to serve US domestic needs, not those of the international community, just as many Eurozone countries suffered during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis because of policies that supported robust European economies.

China has lent enormous sums of money to fund projects through its Belt and Road Initiative, which is Beijing's strategy to link more than 60 countries into a China-centred trade network, primarily through investments and infrastructure projects. China is the developing world's largest creditor after the World Bank. In the midst of escalating tensions with the West and accusations that it is forging debt traps on the continent, China said in August that it would be cancelling a number of interest-free loans to 17 African nations.

To aid in the recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak and the debt crisis, China also announced that it will redirect $10 billion of its IMF special drawing rights, an international reserve asset administered by the international financial agency.

It is time for economies to pool their resources and develop some form of infrastructure that responds instantly to emergencies of this nature in order to avoid a domino effect that could affect many other economies and eventually cause a slowdown on a global scale.

However, the current difficulty is that China faces significant domestic difficulties as well. Although it would like to increase its overseas lending, the country must significantly reduce it due to domestic debt problems and the dire state of the global economy. Global economic development is generally slowing down, which will have an impact on the ability of the relevant nations to make repayments and China's capacity to make loans.