Chinese Loans Are Crushing Ecuador's Budgets

Xi Jinping Meets with President Rafael Correa Delgado of Ecuador n Brasilia. 2014/07/17

Herald-Mail Media/Los Angeles Times: Ecuador is feeling pain of China loans

QUITO, Ecuador — Rafael Correa wanted to fast-track development projects when he was president of Ecuador, so he borrowed billions of dollars from China. But the loans have come back to haunt his successor, Lenin Moreno, who will go hat in hand to China this month to seek more flexible terms and breathing space.

A onetime ally and now bitter enemy of Correa, Moreno and his government are straining under a huge budget deficit caused partly by obligations to the Chinese, whose loans financed roads, dams, schools and office buildings during Correa’s time in office from 2007 to 2017.

Ecuador is one of several Latin American countries that in recent years benefited from China’s lending spree. Like other loans China has made in the region, those to Ecuador are partially payable with shipments of natural resources — oil, in Ecuador’s case — which China needs to stoke its fast-growing economy.

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WNU Editor: Ex-President Rafael Correa who approved all of these loans is currently on the run from Ecuadorean authorities .... Interpol rejects Ecuador request to call for Correa’s arrest (Charlotte Observer/AP).