Pakistan's External Debt Nearly Doubles to $135 Billion Over a Decade, World Bank Data Shows

Pakistan's total external debt has nearly doubled over the past ten years, rising 97% from $68.7 billion in 2015 to $135.1 billion in 2025, according to the World Bank's International Debt Report 2026. The increase of roughly $66.4 billion underscores how heavily the country has leaned on overseas borrowing to meet its financing requirements.

Public and publicly guaranteed debt accounts for the largest share of the stock at $107.1 billion. Private non-guaranteed debt stood at $17.6 billion, while short-term debt was recorded at $10.5 billion. Within the public and publicly guaranteed category, multilateral lenders held $56.8 billion, bilateral creditors $42.4 billion and private creditors $7.8 billion.

China remains Pakistan's single largest creditor with $22.4 billion outstanding, followed by the World Bank at $19.2 billion and the Asian Development Bank at $16.8 billion. The report notes that official creditors continue to offer considerably softer terms than private markets, with their loans carrying an average maturity of 16 years, a four-year grace period and an average interest rate of 3.6%. Private credit, by contrast, averaged 8.6% interest with a three-year repayment window and only a one-year grace period.

The composition of the debt matters for households, since a larger foreign loan stock means a bigger share of tax revenue is directed toward interest and principal payments rather than schools, hospitals or power projects. Concessional official loans ease that burden, but any shift toward costlier private borrowing raises the eventual bill through taxes, tariffs and slower growth.

The Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan region saw its external debt-to-gross national income ratio climb from 26.7% to 29.4% in 2025, the steepest one-year increase of any region, indicating that debt is still accumulating even as some service ratios improve. During the year, China extended the maturities on $2 billion of loans to Pakistan, while the International Monetary Fund disbursed $2.3 billion under the Extended Fund Facility and the Resilience and Sustainability Facility to support longer-term stability.

Globally, the external debt of low- and middle-income countries reached a record $9.4 trillion in 2025, up 5.5% year on year. The figures add to a growing body of official data tracking Pakistan's debt trajectory, including the Finance Ministry's earlier $138 billion breakdown and separate reporting on rising foreign loans to Sindh.