Net lending (+) / net borrowing (-) (% of GDP) by country

What this measures

Net lending (+) / net borrowing (–) equals government revenue minus expense, minus net investment in nonfinancial assets. It is also equal to the net result of transactions in financial assets and liabilities. Net lending/net borrowing is a summary measure indicating the extent to which government is either putting financial resources at the disposal of other sectors in the economy or abroad, or utilizing the financial resources generated by other sectors in the economy or from abroad. 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)
• Central government debt, total (% of GDP)
• 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)
• Grants and other revenue (current LCU)
• Grants and other revenue (% of revenue)
• Social contributions (current LCU)

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

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, GC.NLD.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.