Chinese grants are the source of 933 million escudos (US$9.3 million) that the Cabo Verdean government has budgeted to spend next year, Lusa reports.

The Portuguese news agency says the budget bill for next year shows that Luxembourg is the only country that will give the government more money than China.

The report says the Cabo Verdean legislature began debating the bill this week.

The bill shows that the government expects to obtain grants worth almost 6 billion escudos from foreign sources next year, 8.2 percent more than last year, including 212 million escudos worth of food to make up for a shortfall caused by three years of severe drought, Lusa reports.