ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - Pakistan's total external debt nearly doubled over the decade ending in 2025, reaching $135.107 billion from $68.673 billion in 2015, according to the World Bank's International Debt Report 2026.
The report showed that the country's external debt comprised $107.076 billion in public and publicly guaranteed debt, $17.58 billion in private non-guaranteed debt and $10.45 billion in short-term debt.
Of the public and publicly guaranteed debt, $56.83 billion was owed to multilateral creditors, $42.43 billion to bilateral lenders and $7.8 billion to private creditors.
China remained Pakistan's largest single creditor, with outstanding loans of $22.4 billion, followed by the World Bank with $19.2 billion and the Asian Development Bank with $16.83 billion.
In 2025, China extended the repayment period for $2 billion in loans to Pakistan, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) provided fresh financing of $2.3 billion under its Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) to support the country's long-term economic stability.
The report highlighted the higher cost of borrowing from private creditors compared to official lenders. The average interest rate on private debt reached 8.6%, against 3.6% on public debt.
Private loans had an average repayment period of just three years, compared with 16 years for public debt. Similarly, the grace period for private borrowing stood at one year, while public loans carried an average grace period of four years.
Pakistan's external debt was equivalent to 34% of its gross national income (GNI), while debt servicing consumed 33% of the country's export earnings, highlighting the growing pressure of repayments on the economy.
The World Bank stressed the need to increase exports and secure more favourable borrowing terms, calling for an effective strategy to ease the country's debt burden and address long-term repayment challenges.