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Who Pays the Most Interest on Its Debt
General government net interest paid, % of GDP, 2019 and the latest year, economies with GDP above half a trillion dollars
Plays the chart through its history. Pauses are where the data set a record or moved most.
Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database, newest edition (named in the source line). Net interest paid is a Palanor calculation: the IMF's general government primary balance minus its overall balance, both as a share of GDP; the IMF does not publish it as a series. Recent years are often IMF estimates. The twelve largest payers among economies with GDP above half a trillion US dollars in 2025, in order of what they paid that year; the faint bar is 2019.
What each large economy's government spends on interest, net of the interest it earns, before the pandemic and now. The order is set by debt, by the rates it was borrowed at and by how much of it has been refinanced since rates rose.
What this chart reads·12 series
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- Brazil · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data)as “Brazil”latest 2025-12-31
- Mexico · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data)as “Mexico”latest 2025-12-31
- India · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data)as “India”latest 2025-12-31
- Italy · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data)as “Italy”latest 2025-12-31
- United States · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data)as “United States”latest 2025-12-31
- Israel · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data)as “Israel”latest 2025-12-31
- Türkiye · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data)as “Türkiye”latest 2025-12-31
- United Kingdom · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data)as “United Kingdom”latest 2025-12-31
- Poland · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data)as “Poland”latest 2025-12-31
- Indonesia · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data)as “Indonesia”latest 2025-12-31
- France · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data)as “France”latest 2025-12-31
- Spain · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data)as “Spain”latest 2025-12-31
Sources·12 sources
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Brazil · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data). Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database, October 2026 (the IMF's published database file, WEOOct2026all.xlsx). Transformation by Palanor: net interest paid is the IMF's general government primary balance minus its overall balance (net lending/borrowing), both % of GDP as published in the same edition. The IMF does not publish this series itself. Provided by the IMF "as is" and available free of charge from the IMF; the IMF does not endorse Palanor.
Mexico · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data). Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database, October 2026 (the IMF's published database file, WEOOct2026all.xlsx). Transformation by Palanor: net interest paid is the IMF's general government primary balance minus its overall balance (net lending/borrowing), both % of GDP as published in the same edition. The IMF does not publish this series itself. Provided by the IMF "as is" and available free of charge from the IMF; the IMF does not endorse Palanor.
India · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data). Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database, October 2026 (the IMF's published database file, WEOOct2026all.xlsx). Transformation by Palanor: net interest paid is the IMF's general government primary balance minus its overall balance (net lending/borrowing), both % of GDP as published in the same edition. The IMF does not publish this series itself. Provided by the IMF "as is" and available free of charge from the IMF; the IMF does not endorse Palanor.
Italy · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data). Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database, October 2026 (the IMF's published database file, WEOOct2026all.xlsx). Transformation by Palanor: net interest paid is the IMF's general government primary balance minus its overall balance (net lending/borrowing), both % of GDP as published in the same edition. The IMF does not publish this series itself. Provided by the IMF "as is" and available free of charge from the IMF; the IMF does not endorse Palanor.
United States · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data). Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database, October 2026 (the IMF's published database file, WEOOct2026all.xlsx). Transformation by Palanor: net interest paid is the IMF's general government primary balance minus its overall balance (net lending/borrowing), both % of GDP as published in the same edition. The IMF does not publish this series itself. Provided by the IMF "as is" and available free of charge from the IMF; the IMF does not endorse Palanor.
Israel · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data). Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database, October 2026 (the IMF's published database file, WEOOct2026all.xlsx). Transformation by Palanor: net interest paid is the IMF's general government primary balance minus its overall balance (net lending/borrowing), both % of GDP as published in the same edition. The IMF does not publish this series itself. Provided by the IMF "as is" and available free of charge from the IMF; the IMF does not endorse Palanor.
Türkiye · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data). Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database, October 2026 (the IMF's published database file, WEOOct2026all.xlsx). Transformation by Palanor: net interest paid is the IMF's general government primary balance minus its overall balance (net lending/borrowing), both % of GDP as published in the same edition. The IMF does not publish this series itself. Provided by the IMF "as is" and available free of charge from the IMF; the IMF does not endorse Palanor.
United Kingdom · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data). Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database, October 2026 (the IMF's published database file, WEOOct2026all.xlsx). Transformation by Palanor: net interest paid is the IMF's general government primary balance minus its overall balance (net lending/borrowing), both % of GDP as published in the same edition. The IMF does not publish this series itself. Provided by the IMF "as is" and available free of charge from the IMF; the IMF does not endorse Palanor.
Poland · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data). Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database, October 2026 (the IMF's published database file, WEOOct2026all.xlsx). Transformation by Palanor: net interest paid is the IMF's general government primary balance minus its overall balance (net lending/borrowing), both % of GDP as published in the same edition. The IMF does not publish this series itself. Provided by the IMF "as is" and available free of charge from the IMF; the IMF does not endorse Palanor.
Indonesia · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data). Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database, October 2026 (the IMF's published database file, WEOOct2026all.xlsx). Transformation by Palanor: net interest paid is the IMF's general government primary balance minus its overall balance (net lending/borrowing), both % of GDP as published in the same edition. The IMF does not publish this series itself. Provided by the IMF "as is" and available free of charge from the IMF; the IMF does not endorse Palanor.
France · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data). Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database, October 2026 (the IMF's published database file, WEOOct2026all.xlsx). Transformation by Palanor: net interest paid is the IMF's general government primary balance minus its overall balance (net lending/borrowing), both % of GDP as published in the same edition. The IMF does not publish this series itself. Provided by the IMF "as is" and available free of charge from the IMF; the IMF does not endorse Palanor.
Spain · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data). Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database, October 2026 (the IMF's published database file, WEOOct2026all.xlsx). Transformation by Palanor: net interest paid is the IMF's general government primary balance minus its overall balance (net lending/borrowing), both % of GDP as published in the same edition. The IMF does not publish this series itself. Provided by the IMF "as is" and available free of charge from the IMF; the IMF does not endorse Palanor.
Charts are drawn from Palanor's signal library and recomputed from source data on every view. Transformations (changes, indexing, year-on-year rates) are Palanor's.