Dubai, UAE — The World Bank recently said that amid the biggest surge in global interest rates in four decades, developing countries spent a record $443.5 billion to service their external public and publicly guaranteed debt in 2022.
The increase in costs shifted scarce resources away from critical needs such as health, education, and the environment. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the biggest economies in the Arab world, reported the highest levels of gross debt in the region.
TRENDS takes a look at debt situation in some of the Arab countries vis-a-vis the global rankings: