Latest update July 4th, 2026 12:40 AM
22% of Guyana’s bilateral loans supplied by China in 2024 – 2025 Int’l Debt Report
(Kaieteur News) – A whopping 22% of Guyana’s bilateral loans to support the national budget was supplied in 2024 by China. This is according to the 2025 International Debt Report published by the World Bank.
The report presents data for 119 low and middle-income countries and Guyana (the only high-income country eligible for International Development Association [IDA] resources) reporting to the World Bank Debtor Reporting System.
Chart showing Guyana’s external debt by creditor in 2024 (Source: World Bank)
“Twenty-four of these countries are classified as low-income, with per capita income of US$1,135 or below; 95 countries are classified as middle-income, with per capita income greater than US$1,135 and less than or equal to US$13,935; and one country, Guyana, is classified as high-income, with per capita income of more than US$13,935,” the document explains.
Moreover, during the period, growth in the total external debt stock slowed to 1.1%, reaching US$8.9 trillion, after more than doubling the 2010 level.
The World Bank Report highlights that “public debt owed to multilateral creditors, an important source of concessional financing for (low- and middle-income countries) LMICs, increased 3.0 percent in 2024, to US$1.4 trillion.”
Meanwhile, it added “over the past decade the share of outstanding debt owed to bilateral creditors has decreased 5.2 percentage points, to 12.1% in 2024; by contrast, that of multilateral creditors has increased 4.9 percentage points to 34.6%.”
The World Bank accounted for US$463.1 billion, or 34.1 percent, of multilateral debt stock, followed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at US$371.6 billion, or 27.3%. The notable reduction of debt obligations to official bilateral creditors resulted from a combination of a slowdown in new financing provided by these creditors and the implementation of debt restructuring agreements and forgiveness operations.
In Guyana, the country’s total external debt stock reached US$3.682 billion in 2024. The report points out that this equals 18% of exports and 23% of Gross National Income (GNI).
With regards to debt service, the external debt stocks totaled 3% of exports and 4% of GNI with an average population of 831,000.
According to the report, China remained Guyana’s largest bilateral creditor, accounting for 22% of the country’s total external debt.
Some 39% of loans were provided by bilateral partners while 59% were supplied by multilateral creditors and 2% by “private” lenders.
In 2024, Guyana’s total public debt climbed to almost US$6B, after closing 2023 with a total public debt of US$4.5B.
Despite the worrying increase of debt, the government of Guyana (GoG) believes its borrowing portfolio is sustainable, given the increase in earnings from the petroleum sector.
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