Fact of the Week: The Chinese Government Provided Approximately $132 Billion in Export Financing in 2018

Source: Export-Import Bank of the United States, Report to the U.S. Congress on Global Export Credit Competition, June 2019.

Commentary: Until the last decade, major nations primarily provided financing to domestic exporters only as a lender of last resort. Since then, official medium- and long-term export crediting has more than doubled from $55 billion in 2008 to $129 billion in 2018. This increase has been largely driven by China, which refuses to abide by OECD guidelines on export credits and officially provided $39 billion in financing last year—more than triple any other nation. A new report by the U.S. Export-Import Bank found that China provides far more financing than the official figures, determining that China provided at least $77 billion in export credit in 2018 and estimating that it financed an additional $55 billion where the source of funds could not be identified conclusively.