Chinese lenders provided loans worth US$10.7 billion to Brazil last year, said Inter-American Dialogue, a non-profit institute in the United States, according to a report last week. The think tank added that during the period Brazil was the most popular destination in Latin America for Chinese bank loans.

Chinese banks provided nearly US$30 billion in loans to Latin America last year, more than double the amount from 2014, U.S. broadcaster CNN quoted the institute as saying.

The aggregate of Chinese bank loans to Latin America in 2015 was greater than the amount of money provided to the region that year by multilateral banks including the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank the institute added.

“What we’re seeing is a proliferation of Chinese finance in Latin America,” said Margaret Myers, director at Inter-American Dialogue.

The biggest single Latin American entity receiving Chinese lenders’ money last year was the Brazilian oil company Petrobras, with US$8.2 billion. It was followed by Brazilian aeronautical firm Embraer which received US$1.3 billion, the institute said.