The Ministry of Economy and Finance claimed that Cambodia borrowed only about $79 million to develop the country in the first quarter of 2025.
The Cambodian Public Debt Statistics Bulletin, published in late May 2025, showed that in the first quarter of this year, the Cambodian government owed a total of $12.18 billion.
The same source claimed that from January to March 2025, Cambodia signed new credit agreements worth only nearly $79 million, equivalent to about 3 percent of the debt ceiling allowed by law.
The same source claimed that if compared to the first quarter of 2024 The signing of new credit agreements, commonly known as new debt, has decreased by 44 percent.
Regarding the type of debt, the Ministry of Economy and Finance emphasized that all of the debt or credit is in the highly concessional debt category with an average grant element of approximately 50 percent.
The ministry also further stated that the goal of signing the new debt agreements is to meet the financial needs of the government’s priority sectors to contribute to sustainable long-term growth and increase domestic economic productivity or manufacturing productivity. The ministry also added that during the same period, the government also issued government bonds totaling $28.5 million to finance public investment projects aimed at boosting economic growth and productivity.
Speaking of the expenditure and use of all debt, in the first quarter, the government withdrew cash from debt received in a total amount of more than $175 million, of which 53 percent came from bilateral framework debt and approximately 47 percent from multilateral debt, with actual use in the infrastructure sector reaching up to 86 percent.
The ministry clearly stated that in the first quarter of 2025, debt borrowing decreased, but actual cash withdrawals during this period increased by about 22 percent. When talking about debt, we must also talk about repayment. Regarding repayment, the ministry stated that in the past three months, the government has paid off a total debt of nearly $238 million, including interest and principal repayments. The ministry said that total debt payments in the past three months have also increased by 31%.
In this situation, an economist said that based on these preliminary results, the analysis of debt sustainability based on the database estimated as of the first quarter of 2025 shows that Cambodia’s public debt situation continues to be sustainable and has a low risk level.
