plate 187 · 2025 data

72 countries now pay China more than it lends them

Developing countries' debt service to Chinese lenders vs new Chinese loans received, public debt, 2025.

Trade and money rewired
  1. 1. Mexico, not China, now sells America the most goods
  2. 2. China's ASEAN trade is now almost double its US trade
  3. 3. Central banks now hold more gold than Treasuries or euros
  4. 4. China now pays the world mostly in yuan
  5. 5. Migrants now send home four times all foreign aid
  6. 6. Tether now holds more US Treasuries than the UAE
  7. 7. Developing countries' interest bill has nearly tripled since 2010
  8. 8. America's duty-free parcels grew almost tenfold in nine years
  9. 9. Poles edge past the Japanese in income per person
  10. 10. In dollars, Nigeria's economy has more than halved since 2014
  11. 11. Argentina's monthly inflation fell from 25.5% to 1.9%
  12. 12. Guyana now produces more per person than America
  13. 13. Mexico's factories now outproduce Britain's and France's
  14. 14. Ukraine received four times the aid of any other country
  15. 15. The UAE sold more goods abroad than France in 2025
  16. 16. Singapore now draws twice as much foreign investment as China
  17. 17. The EU now buys more US gas than Russian gas
  18. 18. Malaysia again sells more to America than to China
  19. 19. 22 governments now owe more than a year's national output
  20. 20. Brazil mines 93% of the world's niobium
  21. 21. More Vietnamese now work in industry than on farms
  22. 22. Money sent home to Guatemala nearly quadrupled in ten years
  23. 23. In purchasing power, Russia's economy is now bigger than Japan's
  24. 24. Indonesia set to use more palm oil than it exports
  25. 25. Factories now make more of Cambodia's economy than China's
  26. 26. China now buys more from Brazil than from Germany
  27. 27. Kazakhstan now sells Russia more than Germany does
  28. 28. China fell to third among America's suppliers in 2025
  29. 29. Colombians abroad now send home more than foreigners invest
  30. 30. 72 countries now pay China more than it lends them
  31. 31. Pakistan rose to first place in Chinese energy finance
  32. 32. America overtook China as Taiwan's biggest export market
  33. 33. Mongolia's coal exports hit a record 90 million tonnes
  34. 34. Viet Nam's ports now handle more containers than Japan's
  35. 35. Money sent home now tops half of Tajikistan's economy
  36. 36. Liberia overtook Panama as the biggest flag by ship capacity
  37. 37. Pakistan passed India in tech's share of services exports
  38. 38. Mongolia leapt from 2% to 58% paying utilities by phone
  39. 39. Smaller currencies' share of world reserves has more than doubled
  40. 40. Nickel made Indonesia the world's fifth-biggest iron and steel exporter
  41. 41. Phone savers now outnumber bank savers in 32 countries
  42. 42. Uzbekistan now receives more than twice Ukraine's remittances
  43. 43. Fewer countries owe China more than the World Bank
72 of 89

Borrowers that paid Chinese lenders more than they got in new Chinese loans in 2025, up from 36 of 88 in 2015.

$24.1bn

Paid to China by low and middle-income countries in 2025, against $10.2bn in new loans. Lending peaked at $35.5bn in 2018.

2019

Repayments passed new lending that year and have stayed above it every year since. The 2010s' big lender is now a net collector.

Source: World Bank, International Debt Statistics, 2025
the numbers & method
72 countries now pay China more than it lends them. Source: World Bank, International Debt Statistics, 2025.
CountryValue (m)
AGO2,741.4
ARG2,332.5
ZAF1,624.8
PAK1,102.9
ECU724.4
BLR721.5
CMR532.3
CIV408.2
BRA383.7
UGA345.5
MMR332.3
BGD326.5
KEN273.8
LAO242.2
SEN236.3
COG230.2
KGZ189.4
KHM189.0
VNM180.0
GIN179.2
BOL177.9
LKA175.7
UZB172.6
IRQ137.5
MOZ135.5
GNQ125.3
JAM114.1
TJK113.4
MDV105.2
PNG102.0
TZA101.5
ZMB99.8
MNE85.2
SRB83.7
DJI82.3
IDN66.7
MKD61.7
HND58.1
TGO54.2
SUR53.1
MRT47.1
MAR39.0
MLI31.7
COD28.3
MUS27.3
FJI22.9
ZWE22.1
TKM20.8
BFA19.2
NPL17.3
TON16.9
WSM16.9
SWZ16.7
NER14.9
MDG13.3
LSO13.0
LBR6.5
COM6.2
ETH5.5
RWA4.7
GTM4.4
CPV4.1
BDI3.7
DMA3.6
JOR2.0
ARM1.7
GMB1.3
ERI0.6
GAB0.3
SLE0.3
DOM0.2
TUN0.1
MWI-0.5
GRD-3.5
GUY-5.0
KAZ-5.4
VUT-8.7
BIH-9.7
TCD-10.2
MNG-16.9
SLB-17.2
PHL-35.2
PRY-40.0
GHA-41.1
BEN-66.6
NIC-119.1
NGA-121.9
TUR-636.8
EGY-726.5

Claim types Fact · Interpretation

World Bank International Debt Statistics, read from the World Bank API (source 6, counterpart-area 730 = China, API last updated 2026-11-05) through the progrss data vault. The database holds actual stocks and flows to end-2025 (the World Bank's International Debt Report page describes IDR 2026 as covering debt as of end-2025; debt stocks are filled to 2025 and empty from 2026); later years are projected debt service and are not used. Series: DT.TDS.DPPG.CD (debt service on public and publicly guaranteed external debt, principal plus interest) and DT.DIS.DPPG.CD (disbursements of PPG external debt), creditor China, current US$. Map value = debt service paid to Chinese lenders minus new disbursements from them, US$ million, 2025 (progrss calculation); yellow = paid more than received. Counted: every country with any Chinese PPG debt service or disbursement in the year (aggregates excluded): 72 of 89 in 2025, 77 of 90 in 2024 (the highest count), 51 of 91 in 2019, 36 of 88 in 2015. Low & middle income total, US$ bn, disbursements vs debt service: 2010 16.88 vs 2.16; 2015 17.86 vs 11.04; 2018 35.51 vs 19.08; 2019 24.17 vs 25.05 (above every year since; also briefly above in 2001–03, on tiny sums); 2024 7.87 vs 26.62; 2025 10.18 vs 24.13. Largest net payers 2025, US$ m: Angola 2,741, Argentina 2,333, South Africa 1,625, Pakistan 1,103. Largest net receivers: Egypt 727, Türkiye 637. Covers only public and publicly guaranteed debt reported to the World Bank Debtor Reporting System, not private-to-private loans. Countries in debt restructuring paid little in 2025 (Ghana, Zambia, Ethiopia), so they look smaller than their debts. Tunisia's two flows are almost equal (net 0.1). 'Net collector' is a progrss interpretation. Licence: CC BY 4.0.

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