Today, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) updated its publicly available Global Debt Database (GDD) – a comprehensive dataset covering public and private debt for virtually the entire world (190 countries) dating back to the 1950s.
Today’s update of the GDD offers for the first time a glimpse of global debt developments up to 2017. By including both the sovereign and private sides of borrowing for the entire world, the GDD offers an unprecedented picture of global debt in the post-World War II era.
According to update, global debt has reached an all-time high of $184 trillion in nominal terms or the equivalent of 225 percent of GDP in 2017. On average, the world’s debt now exceeds $86,000 per person—more than 2½ times the average income per-capita. The top three borrowers in the world (United States, China, and Japan) account for more than half of global debt, exceeding their share of global output.
The number is $2 trillion higher than the estimated number released during Fiscal Monitor press conference in October 2018, because it includes end-2017 data and includes the debts of several countries who had not previously reported their updated data.
