Pakistan’s total external debt almost doubled to $135.1 billion over the decade ending in 2025, according to the World Bank’s International Debt Report 2026.
The report puts the total at $135.107 billion in 2025, compared with $68.673 billion in 2015. The rise over the ten-year period amounts to almost a doubling of the stock of external debt, measured from the 2015 figure to the 2025 figure.
The increase, on the figures given, is close to $66.4 billion over the decade. Starting from $68.673 billion in 2015, the total reached $135.107 billion by 2025, a change that the report presents as an almost twofold rise in the country’s external obligations.
China was Pakistan’s largest individual creditor, with $22.4 billion outstanding. That figure places China ahead of the other creditors named in the report, and it accounts for a substantial share of the total external debt.
The World Bank itself was the second-largest creditor named, with $19.2 billion outstanding. The Asian Development Bank, known as the ADB, followed with $16.83 billion outstanding, making it the third-largest creditor in the list.
Together, the three largest creditors — China at $22.4 billion, the World Bank at $19.2 billion and the ADB at $16.83 billion — account for $58.43 billion of the total. That sum represents a large part of the $135.107 billion total reported for 2025.
The report places Pakistan’s experience within a wider picture for developing economies. Developing economies’ external debt rose to a record high of $9.4 trillion, according to the same report, showing that the rise in external borrowing was not confined to Pakistan alone.
External debt for developing economies climbed 5.5 percent, the report says, as bond issues rebounded, the US dollar weakened and investors again showed greater willingness to lend. Those three factors — a rebound in bond issues, a weaker dollar and a renewed willingness to lend — are given as the drivers of the increase across developing economies.
The global context helps to explain the direction of the figures, even though the report’s Pakistan figures stand on their own. The record high of $9.4 trillion for developing economies as a group shows the scale of external debt across that group, and Pakistan’s near-doubling sits within that broader rise.
The decade from 2015 to 2025 is the period covered by the comparison. In 2015, Pakistan’s total external debt was $68.673 billion. By 2025, it had reached $135.107 billion, and the report presents that change as an almost doubling over the ten years.
The identity of the largest creditors is a central part of the report’s findings for Pakistan. China, as the largest individual creditor, holds $22.4 billion in outstanding claims, a figure that exceeds the amounts held by the multilateral lenders named alongside it.
The World Bank’s $19.2 billion and the ADB’s $16.83 billion are the next largest amounts. The two multilateral institutions together hold $36.03 billion, a sum that, when added to China’s $22.4 billion, forms the bulk of the creditor picture described in the report.
The International Debt Report 2026 is the source for all of the figures in this account. It is the World Bank’s publication on external debt, and its 2026 edition provides the comparison between 2015 and 2025 for Pakistan and for developing economies as a whole.
The near-doubling of Pakistan’s external debt over the decade is the headline finding for the country. The move from $68.673 billion to $135.107 billion represents a substantial increase in the stock of debt owed to external creditors, measured over ten years.
The report’s wider finding, that developing economies’ external debt reached a record $9.4 trillion, places that increase in a global setting. The 5.5 percent rise in external debt for those economies, driven by rebounding bond issues, a weaker US dollar and greater willingness among investors to lend, is the background against which the country-level figures are reported.
For Pakistan, the creditor breakdown shows a mix of bilateral and multilateral lenders. China stands as the largest individual creditor, while the World Bank and the ADB, as multilateral institutions, hold the next largest amounts, and the three together account for a major share of the $135.1 billion total.
Source: Dawn, World Bank International Debt Report 2026
