LONDON/MOSCOW—The impoverished state of Central African Republic landed a windfall on Nov. 27, at least on paper, when Russian state bank VTB reported it had lent the country $12 billion—but the bank then said it was a clerical error and there was no such loan.
The loan was mentioned in a quarterly VTB financial report published by the Russian central bank. The report included a table listing the outstanding financial claims that VTB group had on dozens of countries as of Oct. 1 this year.
