Annual Publications
In 1973, the first publication of debt statistics from the World Bank’s Debtor Reporting System (DRS) was published as the World Debt Tables. Since then, the publication and data have undergone numerous iterations to address the challenges and demands posed by the global economic conditions. Below, you can find the links to these annual publications.
International Debt Report
In 2022, the annual publication was rebranded as International Debt Report (IDR) to reflect new and substantive analysis on debt issues, and the expansion in the granularity and coverage of the data. While the name of the publication changed, the publicly available statistics will remain named International Debt Statistics (IDS). Visit the IDR Product Page for more.
International Debt Statistics
In 2013, the publication of debt statistics from the World Bank’s Debtor Reporting System (DRS) changed its name from Global Development Finance to International Debt Statistics. Over the years, the country tables were also streamlined to highlight core debt indicators and ratios, while providing users access to hundreds of debt indicators through the online database.
Global Development Finance/World Debt Tables
Before 2013, the International Debt Statistics was called Global Development Finance. The publication was initially available in two volumes: Volume I was the analysis and commentary and Volume II was the summary and country tables. Before 1997, the analysis and statistical tables were published as The World Debt Tables.
The Little Data Book on External Debt
The Little Data Book on External Debt is a pocket edition of Global Development Finance. It includes statistical tables of the external debt of developing countries. It also includes tables of selected debt and resource flow statistics for individual reporting countries as well as summary tables for regional and income groups.
Database Archives
These archives contain Excel spreadsheets and range in size from 6-80Mb (compressed), and include databases from the period prior to 2012 when the report was named Global Development Finance. Archives from July, 2010 to October, 2012 also include data from the World Development Indicators (WDI). Archives prior to February, 2010 also include data in text and MS Access formats. Note that the Year column refers to the calendar year in which the database and its corresponding report were originally published.
Year | Month(s) |
2021 | January, October |
2019 | December |
2018 | December |
2017 | December |
2016 | December |
2015 | December |
2014 | December |
2013 | December |
2012 | December, October, September, July, May, April |
2011 | December, September, July, April |
2010 | December, July, February |
2009 | May |
2008 | December, April |
2007 | November, April |
2006 | December, April |
2005 | November, April |
For databases from 1989-2005, you can visit the WDI archive on DataBank.