Abstract: The Belt and Road Initiative has made remarkable progress since 2013 as more and more countries have been joining in the effort to build a mutually beneficial global economic system. However, in order to protect their own status and benefits, some countries deliberately spread rumors that China seizes the opportunity to push a “debt trap”. Such rumors pose obstacles to the development of the Initiative. In view of this, the overall debt situation of the countries along the belt and road is studied with important indexes such as GDP, export of goods and services and stock of foreign debt of some countries along the route.The changes of liability ratio, foreign debt ratio and growth rate before and after the implementation of Belt and Road Initiative have been compared, followed by a econometric model to examine the specific impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on the stock of foreign debt and liability ratio of the countries along the route. It is concluded that although the stock of foreign debt has significantly increased under the Initiative, which means increased debt burden and existing debt problems of some countries, the impact of the initiative on liability ratio and growth rate of the countries along route is significantly negative, which means risk reduction of their debt. To sum up, the accusation of China of setting up “debt trap”is groundless since the results show China is not the main cause of their debt problems, nor has them fallen into a “debt trap”.

Key words: the Belt and Road, debt trap, liability ratio, foreign debt ratio