Bulgaria: Short-term debt (% of total reserves)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2022, Bulgaria's short-term debt (% of total reserves) rose 2.76 percentage points on 2021 (from 21.61% to 24.37%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1992 to 2021), the average change was −7.07 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 41.04 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.2 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 101.36 percentage points in 1996 and the biggest yearly fall was 144.82 percentage points in 1994. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2013 to 2022 the straight-line trend is downward, about 3.99 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 77% of the movement over 10 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

Closest to Bulgaria in the 2022 ranking

• Yemen, Rep. — 1st of 3: 39.9%
• Russian Federation — 3rd of 3: 11.27%

What this measures

Short-term debt includes all debt having an original maturity of one year or less and interest in arrears on long-term debt. Total reserves includes gold.

Limitations: The DRS encourages debtor countries to voluntarily provide information on their short-term external obligations. By its nature, short-term external debt is difficult to monitor: loan-by-loan registration is normally impractical, and monitoring systems typically rely on information requested periodically by the central bank from the banking sector. The World Bank regards the debtor country as the authoritative source of information on its short-term debt. Where such information is not available from the debtor country, data are derived from BIS data on international bank lending based on time remaining to original maturity.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 32 values

Short-term debt (% of total reserves) in nearby economies

• Albania — 19.04% (2024)
• Armenia — 94.94% (2024)
• Azerbaijan — 1.72% (2024)
• Belarus — 111.41% (2024)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina — 32.63% (2024)
• Georgia — 106.38% (2024)
• Kazakhstan — 42.78% (2024)
• Kosovo — 119.37% (2024)
• Kyrgyz Republic — 31.4% (2024)
• Moldova — 40.75% (2024)
• Montenegro

More economic policy & debt data for Bulgaria

• Adjusted savings, education expenditure (% of GNI) — 4.06% (2021)
• Adjusted savings, net forest depletion (current US$) — US$0 (2021)
• Adjusted savings, mineral depletion (current US$) — US$387.76 million (2021)
• Adjusted savings, energy depletion (current US$) — US$46.2 million (2021)
• Trade in services (% of GDP) — 21.44% (2025)
• Communications, computer, etc. (% of service imports, BoP) — 37.95% (2025)
• Primary income payments (BoP, current US$) — US$11.11 billion (2025)
• Imports of goods and services (current US$, BoP) — US$67.93 billion (2025)
• Goods imports (current US$, BoP) — US$58.51 billion (2025)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
• Data analysis examples: 6 worked from one dataset — 3 min read
• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read

Questions people ask

What is Bulgaria's short-term debt (% of total reserves)?

24.37% in 2022, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1991?

It is down 209.41 percentage points from 233.79% in 1991. The highest value was 233.79% in 1991 and the lowest 21.61% in 2021.

Is the latest change in short-term debt (% of total reserves) unusual for Bulgaria?

In 2022, Bulgaria's short-term debt (% of total reserves) rose 2.76 percentage points on 2021 (from 21.61% to 24.37%). Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1992 to 2021), the average change was −7.07 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 41.04 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.2 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

Where does this data come from?

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator DT.DOD.DSTC.IR.ZS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: World Development Indicators, World Bank (WB); International Monetary Fund (IMF), type: Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook and data files; World Bank (WB), type: GDP estimates; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), type: GDP estimates Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

Want to ask your own questions of data like this? Try AnalyzeIt: upload a file or ask about public data in plain words, and every figure comes with its working.