today plate 313 · power shift · end-2025 data

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.
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312 leapfrog More Malawians go online than have electricity at home 311 going electric Solar overtook wind power in 24 countries in ten years 310 new routes Viet Nam became the world's third-biggest corn importing country 309 going electric Apurímac went from no copper to a seventh of Peru's 308 hotter planet Cambodia now loses its forest faster than any big-forest country 307 new routes China now supplies almost two-thirds of lithium-ion battery imports 306 new routes Morocco's container ports grew fastest of the world's top 40 305 people on the move DR Congo has more babies each year than the EU 304 people on the move Iraq went from one city of a million to eight
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