Islamabad (S Awan) Pakistan's external debt has exceeded 135 billion dollars, during the last one year, a 4% increase in external debt was recorded, while in the last 10 years, Pakistan's external debt has almost doubled.

The World Bank released the International Debt Report 2026, according to which Pakistan's external debt was $68.7 billion in 2015, which increased to $135.1 billion at the end of 2025.

According to the report, Pakistan's external debt of more than 107 billion dollars is of government nature, while the amount of unsecured debt of the private sector was recorded at 17.58 billion dollars. Pakistan's short-term external liabilities of $10.45 billion are also intact.

According to the World Bank, China is Pakistan's largest bilateral creditor with loans of $22.4 billion. Pakistan owes $19.2 billion to World Bank's IDA and $16.83 billion to Asian Development Bank. Pakistan owes a total of $42.4 billion to bilateral creditors.

According to the report, the IMF provided $2.3 billion to Pakistan under the Extended Fund Facility and the Resilience and Sustainability Facility in 2025, while China also granted a moratorium on debt repayments of about $2 billion.

According to the World Bank, loans from private lenders are more expensive than government financing. Average interest rate on private loans was recorded at 8.6 percent while on government loans was recorded at 3.6 percent. The average repayment period for private loans is only 3 years while the average repayment period for government loans is 16 years.

According to the report, Pakistan's external debt has become equal to 34 percent of the gross national income, while 33 percent of the country's exports are being spent on debt repayment.

The World Bank has termed the growing debt burden as a major challenge for Pakistan's economy and has emphasized the need for increasing exports, better conditions for obtaining loans and adopting effective strategies to reduce debt burden.