The world's biggest official creditor is China from Marketplace.

I'm Sabrina Beneshore in for David Brancaccio.

No country borrows more from Chinese state-owned lenders than the U.S.

This is according to a new report from aid data.

It's a research lab at the College of William and Mary.

Marketplace's Nancy Marshall-Genzert has more. A lot of attention has been given to China. report from aid data. It's a research lab at the College of William and Mary. Marketplaces

Nancy Marshall-Genzert has more. A lot of attention has been given to China's Belt and Road

initiative loans Beijing makes to developing nations for infrastructure projects. But aid data

says in 2023, only about a quarter of China's loan portfolio went to lower-income countries, with the rest going to richer nations, like the U.S.

In fact, aid data says Chinese-owned lenders helped bankroll terminals at airports in New York and Los Angeles and data centers in Northern Virginia.

They've also financed the acquisition of high-tech companies and lent to

U.S. corporations like Disney, Holliburton, Amazon, and AT&T. The report also says some of these loans

enabled Chinese companies to get hold of critical U.S. technologies, but many were guided by the

pursuit of profit. I'm Nancy Marshall Genser for Marketplace.

Whether it is the cost of food, housing, health care, anxiety over affordability has been riling up consumers and voters.

New data from a couple of progressive groups is now showing that high prices are also closing in on Americans.

When it comes to the basic necessities like utilities, the number of households that are late on utility bills rose almost 10% in a year.

Senior Washington correspondent Kimberly Adams has more.

A new analysis out from the Century Foundation and the nonprofit protect borrowers

finds that almost 14 million Americans, about one in 20 households, are so far behind on their utility bills,

that their debt has either been sent to collections or is about to be.

Families need electricity.

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