Colombia · Net Interest · % GDP

## What this measures

What Colombia's general government pays its creditors, net of the interest it earns on its own assets, as a share of the economy.

## Why it matters

The cost of the debt, not its size. It rises with a lag as old low-rate debt is refinanced at today's rates, which is why it keeps climbing after rates stop rising.

## How to read it

Above about 3% of GDP, interest starts to compete with defense, education or health for room in the budget. Negative means the government earns more interest than it pays.

Each point is one year's figure in the newest World Economic Outlook, dated December 31, up to the year before the edition's own year. The IMF's projection from there is a separate series (imf.weo.*.projection). The newest year is often still an IMF estimate, and the whole history is revised with each edition (April and October).

## What it does not say

A Palanor calculation, not an IMF figure: rounding in the two published balances carries into it. It excludes central-bank losses. The OECD Economic Outlook, the panel's source for this measure elsewhere, does not publish it for Colombia, so the figures here are the IMF's and compare with other countries' OECD figures on definition but not always to the decimal.

## Source

Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database, October 2026 (the IMF's published database file, WEOOct2026all.xlsx). Transformation by Palanor: net interest 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.