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The new head of the World Bank told China that she needed to shed light on her lending to poor countries, while warning that debt problems were again on the rise.
In his first public appearance as President of the World Bank, David Malpbad said that there are already 17 African countries at high risk of debt distress.
"This number is increasing as new contracts come in and are not transparent," he added.
Malpbad said the debt could help countries improve their economic performance, but that it would hold back growth if it was not transparent.
Beijing has increased its influence in Africa by granting large loans to governments for infrastructure projects without any political constraints. But the World Bank and its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund, are worried about the risks of corruption and over-indebtedness.
Malpbad said the key to using poor country borrowing was "to have transparent disclosure as it is created and quality projects. Bilateral donors can do better. "
Christine Lagarde, chief executive of the IMF, said any attempt to resolve a new debt crisis would be complicated by the arrival of new lenders over the past decade. Chinese and private loans have increased in recent years.
The IMF estimated that 40 percent of low-income countries are at high risk of debt distress after borrowing heavily, while global interest rates were low and commodity prices were high.
"The Bank and the IMF are working together to improve transparency and better identify debt," Lagarde said. She added that it was important to know the terms and conditions related to the loan, the amount of the loans and the period during which the debts were to be repaid.
The Jubilee Debt Campaign has calculated that debt repayment by the world's poorest countries has doubled since 2010 and is now at its highest level since just before the G8-approved write-down at the 2005 Gleneagles Summit. .
Malpbad said the slowdown in the global economy throughout 2018 was affecting the hardest-hit people in poor countries and warned that a failure in improving living standards would jeopardize the economy. goal of eradicating extreme poverty.
"According to current trends, per capita income growth in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole is expected to remain below 1% until at least 2021, which increases the risk of increased concentration of extreme poverty on the economy. continent.
"This is extremely disturbing as it puts at risk the World Bank 's main goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030".
Malpbad said the number of people living in extreme poverty – living on less than $ 1.90 a day – had dropped to 700 million at the last count, but that it was on the rise in sub-Saharan Africa.
"By the year 2030, nearly nine out of ten extremely poor people will be Africans and half of the world's poor will live in fragile and conflict-affected environments," he said.
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