PHNOM PENH, March 11 – Cambodia’s government said public debt rose to $13.05 billion at the end of 2025, or 18.3% of gross domestic product, while maintaining that the debt burden remained manageable under a predominantly concessional external financing structure, according to a Ministry of Economy and Finance debt bulletin reported by state-linked coverage on Tuesday. The bulletin said 98% of the debt stock was external, 2% domestic, and that Cambodia paid $678.3 million in debt service in 2025.
The narrower sovereign headline contrasts with the International Monetary Fund’s broader public debt framework. In its 2025 Article IV consultation for Cambodia, published on December 2, the IMF projected total public debt at 26.5% of GDP in 2025 and 27.2% in 2026, with debt service rising from $637 million in 2025 to $735 million in 2026. The same report said growth was expected to slow to 4.8% in 2025 and 4.0% in 2026.
The IMF and World Bank continued to classify Cambodia at low risk of external and overall debt distress, but said debt sustainability was most exposed to contingent liabilities and growth shocks. Their debt sustainability analysis defines coverage more broadly than the headline sovereign measure, covering central government debt and state-owned enterprise debt guaranteed by the central government. It also states that Cambodia’s debt stock includes about $0.6 billion in legacy arrears to the United States and Russia, equivalent to 1.5% of GDP, calculated on a principal-only basis.
That means Cambodia’s official debt narrative and the IMF’s debt path are not direct contradictions so much as different measures of public liability. The ministry’s reported 18.3% figure reflects the debt bulletin’s narrower headline presentation, while the IMF’s 27.2% 2026 projection captures a broader public-and-publicly-guaranteed framework, including guaranteed public-sector liabilities and legacy arrears.
Fiscal pressure is also becoming more visible in the 2026 budget architecture. Public metadata for Cambodia’s Law on Financial Management 2026 shows a maximum national budget spending level of 38,452,658 million riel, while the Ministry of Economy and Finance data portal separately confirms the existence of a Budget in Brief FY2026 document managed by the General Department of Budget.
The IMF said Cambodia’s domestic bond issuance remained small but would need to expand over time. Its debt analysis said authorities fell short of a planned $115 million issuance target in 2024, with actual issuance reaching $74.9 million, and added that domestic issuance in 2025 amounted to only 0.1% of GDP. That suggests Phnom Penh is still in the early stages of shifting from a concessional external borrowing model toward deeper local-currency financing.
For now, the government’s debt position remains low-risk by multilateral standards. But the combination of slower growth, rising debt service, and the need to strengthen domestic financing capacity points to a tighter fiscal corridor than the headline debt ratio alone suggests.
