At the start of the 1980s, Bhutan's external debt was small, but as the decade progressed it increased significantly. Whereas it stood at US$2.7 million in 1984, the debt jumped to US$21 million in 1985 and reached US$70.1 million in 1989. Although efforts have been made to reduce dependence on foreign aid inputs, an increasing amount of aid, other than that received from India, has been in the form of loans rather than outright grants. Whereas Bhutan had no foreign debt outside of India in the early 1980s, by the mid-to- late 1980s, loans--primarily from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank--comprised 30 percent of foreign assistance and represented about 17 percent of its GDP.

Data as of September 1991