Access to finance is not enough: What the International Debt Report 2026 tells us Haishan FuEvis Rucaj November 05, 2026 This page in: English (++...)

Access to finance is not enough: What the International Debt Report 2026 tells us Haishan FuEvis Rucaj November 05, 2026 This page in: English https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/opendata/access-to-finance-is-not-enough--what-the-international-debt-rep?cid=ECR_E_NewsletterWeekly_EN_EXT&deliveryName=DM293296 Developing economies need financing to build roads, power grids and schools, to create jobs, and to raise living standards. That is why access to capital has been a central goal of development finance for decades. But does access alone deliver these results? The newly launched International Debt Report (IDR) 2026, the World Bank Group's annual publication on external debt, puts this question front and center. Here is the paradox it reveals: access to international finance has improved, but the price of that finance has not. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are borrowing more, paying more, and, in many cases, leaving less for long-term development. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/0643cd42-7921-4db8-9077-13f7f4ed6dec Publicación: International Debt Report 2026 For more than five decades, the World Bank’s premier annual publication on debt, now titled the International Debt Report (IDR), along with the associated International Debt Statistics (IDS) database, has helped shape policies in development finance by sharing timely and comprehensive external debt data and analysis with the international community. Drawing on data collected through the World Bank’s Debtor Reporting System, this publication has kept pace with evolving borrowing patterns and new lending instruments, measured the impact of initiatives to relieve debt burdens, and promoted best practices in debt recording and reporting. Each year the report presents an analysis of evolving trends in external debt stocks and flows of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), as well as issues and challenges for development finance. The IDS database provides comprehensive information on external debt stocks and flows of public and private borrowers in LMICs (by borrower and creditor), the terms on which external loans are contracted, current and future debt service, and debt indicators in relation to key economic variables.