Trump flays World Bank for loaning to China

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump added to the criticism of the World Bank’s plan for low-interest loans to China.
“Why is the World Bank loaning money to China?” Trump said in a Twitter post. “Can this be possible? China has plenty of money, and if they don’t, they create it. STOP!”
His tweet came a day after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, at a congressional hearing, said that the administration opposes the plan by the bank, which has loaned more than $1 billion to China this year.
The World Bank is expected to release its latest Country Partnership Framework document for China, which lays out its lending plans to world’s second-largest economy. Mnuchin told the House Financial Services Committee that China should be removed from the World Bank’s loan program.
Several lawmakers voiced concerns about what they described as unannounced World Bank plans to continue lending to China despite rapid growth in country’s per capita income. The US is largest contributor to the World Bank, which provides low-interest loans to low-income nations.
World Bank lending to China declined to $1.3 billion in fiscal year 2019 from $2.4 billion in fiscal 2017.

A statement from the bank late Friday night said that lending to China “has fallen sharply and will continue to reduce as part of our agreement with all our shareholders including the United States. We eliminate lending as countries get richer.”