Chinese institutional holdings of Gulf debt rose to nearly $14 billion as of mid-2025, according to International Monetary Fund data reported by Atlant Capital.
The United Arab Emirates accounts for the largest individual share of this capital at $7.8 billion, followed by Qatar at $5.3 billion and Saudi Arabia at $657 million. Combined, the UAE and Qatar make up over 94 percent of all recorded Chinese debt exposure in the Gulf.
In terms of maturity, approximately $7.5 billion of the total was classified as short-term debt, while $6.3 billion was categorized as long-term debt.
Dubai financial analysts observed that Chinese debt holdings in the region have grown ninefold since mid-2017, driven partly by Chinese financial institutions increasingly arranging primary market paper.
Sources
- Atlant Capital · 2026-09-25
