plate 313 · end-2025 data

Gulf governments now owe 13% of international government bonds

Six Gulf governments' share of all governments' international bonds outstanding, 1.9% at end-2014, 12.6% at end-2025, BIS.

Money rewired
  1. 1. Central banks now hold more gold than Treasuries or euros
  2. 2. China now pays the world mostly in yuan
  3. 3. Migrants now send home four times all foreign aid
  4. 4. Tether now holds more US Treasuries than the UAE
  5. 5. Developing countries' interest bill has nearly tripled since 2010
  6. 6. Poles edge past the Japanese in income per person
  7. 7. In dollars, Nigeria's economy has more than halved since 2014
  8. 8. Argentina's monthly inflation fell from 25.5% to 1.9%
  9. 9. Guyana now produces more per person than America
  10. 10. Ukraine received four times the aid of any other country
  11. 11. Singapore now draws twice as much foreign investment as China
  12. 12. 22 governments now owe more than a year's national output
  13. 13. Money sent home to Guatemala nearly quadrupled in ten years
  14. 14. In purchasing power, Russia's economy is now bigger than Japan's
  15. 15. Colombians abroad now send home more than foreigners invest
  16. 16. 72 countries now pay China more than it lends them
  17. 17. Pakistan rose to first place in Chinese energy finance
  18. 18. Money sent home now tops half of Tajikistan's economy
  19. 19. Pakistan passed India in tech's share of services exports
  20. 20. Mongolia leapt from 2% to 58% paying utilities by phone
  21. 21. Smaller currencies' share of world reserves has more than doubled
  22. 22. Phone savers now outnumber bank savers in 32 countries
  23. 23. Uzbekistan now receives more than twice Ukraine's remittances
  24. 24. Fewer countries owe China more than the World Bank
  25. 25. Poorer countries now owe Saudi Arabia more than America
  26. 26. Cambodia's bank lending grew from 8% to 121% of GDP
  27. 27. Egypt tripled its ATMs per adult in ten years
  28. 28. Bank branches are past their peak in most countries
  29. 29. Guinea rose from 17th to second for investment in Africa
  30. 30. Navoi doubled its share of Uzbekistan's economy in ten years
  31. 31. Turkmenistan has paid back almost all it owed China
  32. 32. Foreign debt payments now top foreign investment in 87 countries
  33. 33. Gulf governments now owe 13% of international government bonds
12.6%

of all governments' international bonds outstanding at end-2025 were owed by six Gulf governments, up from 1.9% at end-2014.

US$395 bn

owed on international bonds by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait at end-2025, up from US$31 bn; Saudi Arabia went from US$18 million to US$123 bn.

13.3%

by mid-2026, and still rising: together, Gulf governments now owe more on international bonds than Canada, Austria or Mexico, the biggest single borrowers.

Source: BIS, international debt securities by issuer residence: general government, end-2025
the numbers & method
Gulf governments now owe 13% of international government bonds. Source: BIS, international debt securities by issuer residence: general government, end-2025.
Gulf governments (%)
20101.6
20141.9
20199.8
202512.6

Claim types Fact · Interpretation

Source: BIS. Bank for International Settlements, debt securities statistics, dataflow WS_DEBT_SEC2_PUB (international market, all currencies and maturities, general government, amounts outstanding, US$ million, issuer residence basis), read from the BIS SDMX API (stats.bis.org) via the progrss vault (GUIDELINES §4.11; bis-debt-sec anchored, 3 matching re-reads, no mismatch). Quarterly series; end-of-year (Q4) values used. International debt securities are bonds and notes sold outside the borrower's local market; domestic government bonds (most US Treasuries, Japanese government bonds) are not included. BIS debt securities are on an issuer-residence basis (a Chinese firm's Cayman or Hong Kong unit counts there); for governments, issuer residence is the government's own country. Gulf = Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (federal and emirate governments), Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait. Gulf total, US$ million: end-2010 24,921; end-2014 30,679 (Saudi Arabia 18, UAE 5,583, Qatar 17,949, Bahrain 7,129; Oman and Kuwait none); end-2019 192,000; end-2025 395,019 (UAE 132,596, Saudi Arabia 122,958, Qatar 44,409, Bahrain 43,117, Oman 27,873, Kuwait 24,066); end-Q2 2026 437,129. Denominator = the sum of every country or territory with a general-government value in the BIS table (international organisations excluded): end-2010 1,516,178 (94 countries); end-2014 1,633,232 (109); end-2019 1,951,372 (115); end-2025 3,130,930 (112); Q2 2026 3,286,858 (112). Among single issuers, the UAE rose from 48th to 4th and Saudi Arabia from last (109th) to 8th between end-2014 and end-2025; end-2025 Canada 198,484, Austria 179,488, Mexico 136,331. Shares (1.6%, 1.9%, 9.8%, 12.6%; 13.3% in Q2 2026), the Gulf sum and the thirteenfold rise are progrss calculations. Debt stocks are what these governments owe to holders of their bonds; who holds them is not in this dataset. Licence: BIS data on plates and chart images only, never in a paid pack.

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