Developing-country external debt rises 5.5% to $9.4tn

DebtFinance

Thursday 5th November 2026

World Bank Group building entrance in Washington, DC, photographed on 21 June 2024; file photograph — World Bank Group premises in Washington, DC, 21 June 2024. File photograph, not the report launch. Photo: Ajay Suresh / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Resized.

By inAfrika Newsroom

Developing countries’ external debt increased 5.5% to $9.4 trillion in 2025 as private lending recovered, the World Bank said in its International Debt Report released on 5 November.

Debt in countries eligible for the bank’s International Development Association rose faster, by 8.1% to $1.3 trillion. These are global aggregates. IDA-eligible African countries include Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.

IDA-eligible borrowers paid an average 8.2% on new private-creditor commitments in 2025, the highest since 1989, and 9.4% on new bonds. Those rates concern private borrowing, rather than IDA’s concessional loans.

Low- and middle-income countries paid $1.4 trillion in principal and interest, up 1.9%. Public-sector bond issuance rose nearly 35% to $251 billion.

Currency valuation also increased reported debt: the weaker dollar raised the dollar value of obligations denominated in other currencies. More than a quarter of the $303 billion increase in public and publicly guaranteed debt reflected that effect.

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