IMF highlights risks of domestic borrowing in sub-Saharan Africa

sub-Saharan Africa

🌍 一、地理含义

“Sub-” 意思是“在……之下”；“Saharan” 指撒哈拉沙漠；合起来就是 “撒哈拉沙漠以南的非洲地区”。它不包括北非国家（如埃及、利比亚、突尼斯、阿尔及利亚、摩洛哥）

📍二、包含的主要地区

撒哈拉以南非洲通常被划分为以下几个区域：

西非（West Africa）— 尼日利亚、加纳、塞内加尔、科特迪瓦等

东非（East Africa）— 肯尼亚、坦桑尼亚、乌干达、埃塞俄比亚等

中非（Central Africa）— 刚果（金）、喀麦隆、加蓬、乍得等

南部非洲（Southern Africa）— 南非、赞比亚、津巴布韦、博茨瓦纳等

Sub-Saharan African governments are paying more to borrow at home than abroad as they turn increasingly to domestic banks to plug(填满，填) financing gaps, deepening risks for lenders and squeezing private investment, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

"The domestic(本国的，国内的) cost of capital remains elevated(升高的，抬高的；（指水平或数量）高出正常水平的) across the region," the IMF said in its Regional Economic Outlook(前景，展望), which was released(公开，公布) during the annual meetings of the global lender and World Bank in Washington.

"Local financial markets are underdeveloped(不发达的) - characterized(归纳…的特征) by shallow depth(深度浅), fragmentation(分散), illiquidity(流动性不足) and high transaction costs and lending spreads(贷款利差高)."

The IMF warned that new domestic public borrowing is "significantly more expensive than external borrowing" in many countries. Heavy reliance on banks is raising funding costs further and "crowding out(排挤) private-sector(私营部门) investment."

Domestic bank holdings of sovereign debt(主权债务) are "large and growing faster in sub-Saharan Africa than in the rest of the world," it added, creating a "vicious(恶性的) potential feedback loop" in which weakening government finances threaten banks' soundness(可靠性，稳固性), curbing(约束，抑制) credit and heightening fiscal stress.

“sovereign debt” 的意思是 “主权债务”，指的是一个国家政府借的债。

Sovereign debt = government debt = national debt

指一个国家的中央政府以本国或外币形式向国内外借款的总额。