South Sudan Seeks $1.9 Billion Chinese Loan as Inflation Rockets

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South Sudan said it’s seeking a $1.9 billion loan from China to develop its oilfields and roads, as the war-torn African country battles inflation that exceeded 660 percent last month.

Foreign Minister Deng Alor Kuol requested the financial assistance during a recent visit to the Asian nation and the Export-Import Bank of China “is working on this loan,” ministry spokesman Mawien Makol Arik said Tuesday by phone from the capital, Juba. South Sudan has sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest crude reserves, although output has fallen to as little as 120,000 barrels a day because of a civil war that erupted in December 2013.