LAO · East Asia & Pacific · Lower middle income · IDA
Lao PDR
Lao People's Democratic Republic owed $17.84B to nonresidents in 2024, the 48th largest stock among the 120 economies that report to the Debtor Reporting System. Its first external-debt stock in IDS is 1970.
Who Lao PDR owes
Public and publicly guaranteed debt by creditor class, percent of PPG, 1970–2024. In 2024 PPG stood at $10.02B: 12.3% owed to private creditors, 19.6% to multilateral lenders, and 68.1% to bilateral and other official creditors as a residual.
Source: World Bank International Debt Statistics, Debtor Reporting System (reported by the borrowing government). Selection: DT.DOD.DPPG.CD, DT.DOD.PRVT.CD and DT.DOD.MLAT.ZS for LAO. Bilateral and other official is the residual: PPG minus private minus multilateral. Methodology
On what terms
The composition above says who lent. These say on what terms, and against what the debt is measured. Blank means IDS carries no value for Lao PDR in 2024.
| Concessional debt, % of total external debt loans with an original grant element of 35% or more | 12.1% |
| Short-term debt, % of total external debt original maturity of one year or less, any borrower | 6.2% |
| Total reserves, % of total external debt the buffer against the stock | 12% |
| External debt, % of exports goods, services and primary income | 159% |
| Debt service paid principal and interest actually paid in 2024 | $2.14B |
| Of which interest interest payments on all external debt | $755.7M |
| Private nonguaranteed debt borrowed by companies and banks, no state guarantee | $6.52B |
Source: World Bank International Debt Statistics, Debtor Reporting System (reported by the borrowing government). Selection: DT.DOD.ALLC.ZS, DT.DOD.DSTC.ZS, FI.RES.TOTL.DT.ZS, DT.DOD.DECT.EX.ZS, DT.TDS.DECT.CD, DT.INT.DECT.CD, DT.DOD.DPNG.CD for LAO in 2024. Methodology
What Lao PDR pays, and what it is contracted to pay
Lao PDR paid $2.14B in external debt service in 2024. It is contracted to pay $4.19B in 2025 and $17.93B in total over 2025–2032 on debt it has already contracted. Those years are a repayment schedule, not a forecast of what Lao PDR will pay: borrowing it has not yet done cannot be in them.
Source: World Bank International Debt Statistics, Debtor Reporting System (reported by the borrowing government). Selection: DT.TDS.DECT.CD (total debt service) and DT.TDS.DPPG.CD (PPG debt service) for LAO, all years present in the file. Actual through 2024, which is the last year of the debt-stock series; everything after it is the contracted repayment schedule. Methodology
The stock, 1970–2024
Total external debt in current US dollars, so the path mixes new borrowing with the falling value of the dollar over 54 years. IDS carries no constant-price series, so this is not deflated. $8.3M in 1970, $17.84B in 2024.
Source: World Bank International Debt Statistics, Debtor Reporting System (reported by the borrowing government). Selection: DT.DOD.DECT.CD for LAO, every year with a value, current US dollars. Methodology
What IDS does not carry for Lao PDR
2 of the 24 IDS indicators carry no value for Lao PDR in 2024: Debt forgiveness grants (current US$); PPG, IBRD (DOD, current US$). A blank has three possible causes and IDS distinguishes none of them: the country did not report the series, the series does not apply to it (an IBRD stock for a country with no IBRD loan), or the series has ended for every country. So neither does this page.
Every IDS series here is what Lao PDR reported to the World Bank. The bilateral leg of the creditor chart is the exception: this page derives it as a residual, and it absorbs whatever went unreported. Debt Lao PDR did not report is not here.