Central government debt, total (% of GDP) by country

What this measures

Debt is the entire stock of direct government fixed-term contractual obligations to others outstanding on a particular date. It includes domestic and foreign liabilities such as currency and money deposits, securities other than shares, and loans. It is the gross amount of government liabilities reduced by the amount of equity and financial derivatives held by the government. Because debt is a stock rather than a flow, it is measured as of a given date, usually the last day of the fiscal year. Central government is the part of general government that includes all administrative departments of the national executive, legislative, and judicial functions, other central agencies and those non-market producers controlled by the central government, whose competence extends normally over the whole economic territory. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the total income earned through the production of goods and services in an economic territory during an accounting period.

Limitations: For most countries central government finance data have been consolidated into one account, but for others only budgetary central government accounts are available. Countries reporting budgetary data are noted in the country metadata. Because budgetary accounts may not include all central government units (such as social security funds), they usually provide an incomplete picture. In federal states the central government accounts provide an incomplete view of total public finance. Data on government revenue and expense are collected by the IMF through questionnaires to member countries and by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Each country's latest available year is shown; countries report on different schedules, so compare years before comparing values.

Ranking

Regions and income groups

More public sector indicators

• Net acquisition of financial assets (current LCU)
• Net acquisition of financial assets (% of GDP)
• Central government debt, total (current LCU)
• Net incurrence of liabilities, total (current LCU)
• Net incurrence of liabilities, total (% of GDP)
• Net investment in nonfinancial assets (current LCU)
• Net investment in nonfinancial assets (% of GDP)
• Net lending (+) / net borrowing (-) (current LCU)
• Net lending (+) / net borrowing (-) (% of GDP)
• Grants and other revenue (current LCU)
• Grants and other revenue (% of revenue)
• Social contributions (current LCU)

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Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, GC.DOD.TOTL.GD.ZS, CC BY 4.0. Original source: Government Finance Statistics Yearbook and data files, International Monetary Fund (IMF) View on data.worldbank.org; the full definition is in the World Bank's metadata glossary.