Pakistan’s total external debt has nearly doubled in a decade. The country’s external debt stood at $68.673 billion in 2015 and rose to $135.107 billion in 2025, according to the World Bank’s International Debt Report 2026.
According to the report, public and publicly guaranteed debt accounts for $107.076 billion of Pakistan’s total external debt. Private non-guaranteed debt is $17.58 billion and short-term debt $10.45 billion.
Of the public and publicly guaranteed debt, Pakistan owes $56.83 billion to multilateral lenders, $42.43 billion to bilateral lenders and $7.8 billion to private creditors.
China is Pakistan’s largest single-country lender, owed $22.4 billion. Next comes the World Bank, owed $19.2 billion. Debt to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) stands at $16.83 billion.
The report says loans from official lenders have an average maturity of 16 years, including a four-year grace period, at an average interest rate of 3.6 percent. Private loans carry an average interest rate of 8.6 percent, with an average maturity of three years and a one-year grace period.
In the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan (MENAP) region, the ratios of debt service and interest payments improved somewhat. But in 2025 the region’s ratio of external debt to gross national income (GNI) rose from 26.7 percent to 29.4 percent.
That was the highest one-year increase of any region in the world. In other words, although some debt service indicators improved, debt continues to pile up.
In 2025 China extended the repayment period of Pakistan’s debt, rolling over $2 billion of loans. In the same year the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a further $2.3 billion to Pakistan under its Extended Fund Facility and its Resilience and Sustainability Facility.
The money was given to secure the country’s long-term economic stability.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report