China’s Retreat From Africa Lending Turns It Into Debt Collector

China is lending less to Africa than it collects in repayments, redefining its relationship with the continent toward trade, smaller-scale investment and wider use of its currency.

The world’s biggest manufacturing nation swung from providing $30.4 billion in net funding to Africa in the five years through 2014 to receiving $22.1 billion in net repayments over the past five years — a reversal of about $52 billion over the past decade — according to analysis by ONE Data for the Development Finance Observatory published Tuesday. China is now a “net extractor,” the report said.