Government debt

Total amount of debt owed to lenders by a government/state

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January 2025
Countries by external debt
Panama's external debt data recorded for January, continuing global economic tracking
2024 U.S. gross general government debt reached $34 trillion.
September 2024
Countries by external debt
European Union reported an external debt of 24.50 trillion USD in September 2024
September 2024
Countries by external debt
External debt data snapshot for multiple countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and others, providing a global economic perspective on national debt levels
September 2024
Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund
IMF's executive board approved a $7 billion loan for Pakistan, to be received in installments over 37 months.
July 2024
Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund
Pakistan reached a staff-level agreement for a new $7 billion loan with IMF.
June 2023
Countries by external debt
Romania's external debt data reported, highlighting economic monitoring
June 30 2023
Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund
IMF and Pakistan reached a staff-level agreement for a $3 billion stand-by arrangement to prevent potential financial default.
April 2023
Countries by external debt
Brazil's external debt data recorded, indicating ongoing economic tracking
December 2022
Countries by external debt
Morocco's external debt data captured, showing ongoing financial assessment
2021
Countries by external debt
Sudan records a significant external debt of 283.64 USD, indicating substantial financial challenges
2020
Financial repression
End of the observed period of low interest rates in industrialized countries, with no significant economic boom resulting from these rates.
2020 Global government debt reaches $87.4 trillion, accounting for 99% of gross domestic product and almost 40% of total debt, the highest share since the 1960s.
2020 COVID-19 recession contributes to further increase in global government debt.
2020 Global government debt reached $87.4 trillion, accounting for almost 40% of total debt - the highest share since the 1960s, further influenced by COVID-19 recession stimulus measures.
2019
Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund
Pakistan went to IMF for the twenty-second time, receiving a loan with conditions including energy tariff hikes and economic reforms.
April 2019
Euro area crisis
The European Parliament endorsed regulatory changes to facilitate Sovereign Bond Backed Securities (SBBS), which are essentially equivalent to the original ESBies proposal.
2018
Euro area crisis
Banks were required to start setting aside at least one percent of deposits covered by national guarantees for a special fund to finance banking crisis resolutions.
2018 Annual reports from U.S. Social Security and Medicare trust funds revealed Medicare faces $37 trillion unfunded liability over the next 75 years, and Social Security faces $13 trillion unfunded liability.
2018 Global government debt reached $66 trillion, equivalent to about 80% of global GDP.
December 2018
Countries by external debt
Palestine records a minimal external debt of 0.27 USD
August 20 2018
Euro area crisis
Greece's bailouts officially ended.
March 2018
Euro area crisis
Spain's unemployment rate fell to 16.1% and national debt reached 98.30% of GDP.
2017
Euro area crisis
The European Central Bank showed interest in the European Safe Bonds (ESBies) proposal, originally developed by Princeton University economists, which suggested a novel approach to creating safe European government bonds.
2016
Euro area crisis
Portugal reduces its budget deficit to below three percent, achieving this through a leftist coalition that increased minimum wage and reversed previous public sector cuts.
2016 U.S. state and local government debt reached $3 trillion, with an additional $5 trillion in unfunded liabilities.
2015
Euro area crisis
Germany's budget includes a surplus for the first time since 1969, with projections indicating debt will be less than required by the Stability and Growth Pact by 2019.
August 2015
Euro area crisis
Greece agreed on a third bailout package.
July 6 2015
Euro area crisis
Greece's finance minister Yanis Varoufakis stepped down following the referendum results.
July 5 2015
Euro area crisis
Greek citizens voted 61% to 39% to reject a referendum on bailout conditions, leading to the resignation of finance minister Yanis Varoufakis on July 6th.
April 2015
Euro area crisis
The Cypriot government issued €1 billion of seven-year bonds with a 4.0% yield, continuing its efforts to return to financial markets.
2014
Euro area crisis
The eurozone's current account surplus almost doubled compared to the previous year, reaching a record high of 227.9 billion Euros.
2014 International Monetary Fund published the Government Finance Statistics Manual (GFSM), which established recommended methodologies for compiling international debt statistics to ensure comparability.
September 4 2014
Euro area crisis
European Central Bank cuts interest rates to a record low of 0.05%, aiming to make borrowing cheaper and boost economic investment.
September 4 2014
Euro area crisis
ECB cuts interest rates to a record low of 0.05%, aiming to make borrowing cheaper and boost economic investment.
June 2014
Euro area crisis
MSCI reclassifies Greece as an emerging market due to failure to meet market accessibility criteria.
June 2014
Euro area crisis
Cyprus began regaining access to private lending markets by selling €0.75 billion of bonds with a five-year maturity at a 4.85% yield.
January 23 2014
Euro area crisis
Spain formally exited the EU/IMF bailout mechanism as foreign investor confidence was restored.
January 1 2014
Euro area crisis
Introduction of new EU financial transaction tax by 11 out of 17 eurozone countries.
2013
Euro area crisis
Spain was experiencing 27% unemployment and economic contraction of 1.4%.
2013
Euro area crisis
European Central Bank (ECB) begins lowering bank rates to historical lows, reaching 0.25% in November.
2013
Euro area crisis
According to the Euro Plus Monitor Report, the collective current account of Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain was expected to balance by mid-2013, potentially ending their need to import capital.
September 4 2013
Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund
IMF provided financial assistance through an Extended Fund Facility to Pakistan.
June 2013
Euro area crisis
MSCI reclassified Greece as an emerging market, citing failure to qualify on several market accessibility criteria.
April 30 2013
Euro area crisis
The Cypriot House of Representatives fully endorsed the Troika's Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) outlining the final conditions for the bailout package.
March 2013
Euro area crisis
Economist Paul Krugman argued that the eurozone crisis is fundamentally a balance of payments crisis, not a debt crisis, highlighting the strong relationship between interest spreads and current account deficits.
March 25 2013
Euro area crisis
The final bailout agreement was settled, which included closing the troubled Laiki Bank and reducing the needed loan amount to €10 billion without imposing a general levy on bank deposits.
March 19 2013
Euro area crisis
The Cypriot parliament rejected the proposed bailout deal with 36 votes against, 19 abstentions, and one member not present for the vote.
December 2012
Euro area crisis
Greek government bought back €21 billion of their bonds for 33 cents on the euro.
November 30 2012
Euro area crisis
The Troika (European Commission, International Monetary Fund, and European Central Bank) and the Cypriot Government agreed on bailout terms, with negotiations focusing on the amount of financial support needed.

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