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

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2020, Malawi's short-term debt (% of total reserves) rose 21.95 percentage points on 2019 (from 8.06% to 30.02%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1990 to 2019), the average change was −1.24 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 29.55 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.8 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 207.42 percentage points in 1982 and the biggest yearly fall was 290.27 percentage points in 1984. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2011 to 2020 there is no clear straight-line trend: a straight line explains 6% of the movement over 10 observed years, so the value is moving around more than it is heading anywhere.

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

How it compares

See how every economy compares in the full ranking.

Closest to Malawi in the 2020 ranking

• Afghanistan — 2nd of 2: 4.46%

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 51 values

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

• Angola — 40.78% (2024)
• Botswana — 4.19% (2024)
• Burundi — 0.33% (2023)
• Cabo Verde — 49.56% (2024)
• Cameroon — 18.79% (2024)
• Central African Republic — 25.85% (2024)
• Chad — 1.91% (2024)
• Comoros — 0% (2024)
• Congo, Dem. Rep. — 11.25% (2023)
• Congo, Rep. — 86.58% (2024)
• Eritrea

More economic policy & debt data for Malawi

• Services, value added (constant 2015 US$) — US$6.68 billion (2025)
• Services, value added (constant LCU) — 4.34 trillion (2025)
• Gross Value Added (GVA) at basic prices (constant 2015 US$) — US$11.42 billion (2025)
• Gross Value Added (GVA) at basic prices (constant LCU) — 7.6 trillion (2025)
• GDP (constant 2015 US$) — US$12.18 billion (2025)
• GDP (constant LCU) — 8.09 trillion (2025)
• GDP per capita (constant 2015 US$) — US$548.16 (2025)
• GDP per capita (constant LCU) — 364,283 (2025)
• Services, value added (annual % growth) — 2.15% (2025)
• GDP (annual % growth) — 1.89% (2025)

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Questions people ask

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

30.02% in 2020, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1970?

It is up 30.02 percentage points from 0% in 1970. The highest value was 359.63% in 1983 and the lowest 0% in 1970.

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

In 2020, Malawi's short-term debt (% of total reserves) rose 21.95 percentage points on 2019 (from 8.06% to 30.02%). Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1990 to 2019), the average change was −1.24 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 29.55 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.8 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.

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