Economy · External debt service · Botswana
Botswana’s external debt service rose to 4.7% of exports in 2024.
4.7% of exports
2024
Up 1.1 pp from 2023.
Updated 8 Oct 2026
In plain words
4.7% of exports
What it is. External debt service shows how much of a country's earnings from selling abroad goes to repaying foreign creditors. Principal and interest payments on external debt are divided by exports of goods, services and primary income, which includes earnings on investments abroad. The ratio covers obligations owed to non-residents, and the size of the debt stock sits outside it.
Lower is better. A lower ratio means less foreign income is committed to creditors, which leaves more to pay for imports and to hold as reserves. Botswana's latest figure is 4.7% of exports for 2024, up from 3.7% of exports a year earlier, a rise of 1.1 percentage points. That is the highest reading since 2015, the start of the window. The lowest in the same span was 1.9% of exports in 2022, so the ratio has climbed steeply from that trough.
Why it matters. More of Botswana's foreign earnings now goes to lenders, which leaves less for imports bought by the government and by firms. Borrowers with foreign loans need more foreign currency for repayments than in 2022, when the ratio stood at 1.9% of exports.
| Period | External debt service · Botswana |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 3.3% of exports |
| 2016 | 2% of exports |
| 2017 | 2.4% of exports |
| 2018 | 2.4% of exports |
| 2019 | 3% of exports |
| 2020 | 3.8% of exports |
| 2021 | 2% of exports |
| 2022 | 1.9% of exports |
| 2023 | 3.7% of exports |
| 2024 | 4.7% of exports |
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0) · Licence: CC BY 4.0
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Strata-AF™ Data, External debt service, Botswana, 2024; source World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), retrieved 8 Oct 2026; https://data.strata-af.com/economy/debt-service/botswana
Data insights · Worked out from the published figures
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Working this out from the published figures…
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Methodology
Total debt service as a share of exports of goods, services and primary income. Unit: % of exports.
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (series DT.TDS.DECT.EX.ZS), retrieved through the World Bank API and published under CC BY 4.0. Updated annually; the World Bank's own source notes apply.