Nepal’s total public debt has reached Rs 2,729.42bn by mid-November, rising by Rs 55.37bn in the first four months of 2025/26. According to the latest data of the Public Debt Management Office (PDMO), the country’s public debt-to-GDP ratio now stands at 44.69 percent.

External debt continues to dominate Nepal’s debt profile, accounting for 53.25 percent, or Rs 1,453.45bn of the total debt, while domestic debt represents 46.75 percent, or Rs 1,275.96bn of the total debt. The report also highlights a significant negative exchange loss of Rs 44.23bn, which weighed heavily on the valuation of external liabilities during the period.

Between mid-July and mid-November of the current fiscal year, the government mobilized a total of Rs 138.75bn in public debt. Domestic borrowing accounted for Rs 120bn of the total public debt mobilized during the period, while the remaining Rs 18.75bn came from external debt.
Domestic debt mobilization remained at 33.15 percent of the target set for the current fiscal year. In contrast, external debt mobilization remained sluggish at just 8.03 percent of the annual target of Rs 233.66bn. This early imbalance suggests challenges in securing or disbursing external financing as scheduled.

In the current fiscal year, the government has earmarked Rs 411.01bn for public debt servicing—Rs 67.45bn to service external debt and Rs 343.55bn to service domestic liabilities. Of this amount, Rs 302.47bn has been allocated for principal repayment and Rs 108.53bn for interest payments. The budget is set aside.

The government has spent Rs 150.89bn, or 36.71 percent of its total annual debt-service budget, in the first four months of the current fiscal year. Of the total amount, Rs 131.66bn went for domestic debt servicing and Rs 19.23bn for external debt servicing. Of the total amount, Rs 127.61bn went for principal payment, while the remaining Rs 23.28bn was spent to pay interest.

The government mobilizes domestic debt primarily through instruments like development bonds and treasury bills. Development bonds make up 76.01 percent of the domestic debt stock, while treasury bills account for 22.51 percent. Smaller instruments, including citizen saving bonds, foreign saving bonds and IMF bonds, constitute the remainder.

According to the report, 9.57 percent of the total external debt came from bilateral lenders, while the remaining 90.43 percent was mobilized from multilateral lenders like Asian Development Bank, Word Bank, International Monetary Fund.