South Korea · General Government Net Interest Paid (Palanor calculation from IMF data)

## What this measures

What general government pays in interest on its debt, net of the interest it earns on its financial assets, as a percent of GDP. Palanor calculates it from two IMF series: the primary balance (which leaves interest out) minus the overall balance (which includes it). South Korea.

## Why it matters

The cost of the debt, not its size. Interest competes with every other line of the budget, and it climbs with a lag as old low-rate debt is refinanced at today's rates.

## How to read it

Higher means more of the economy goes to creditors. Above about three percent of GDP, interest starts to rival what governments spend on defense or education. 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. The series stops the year before the WEO's own year; the IMF's forecast from there is a separate series (the same name with "IMF Projection"), so this line never mixes measured and forecast years. The newest year is often still an IMF estimate, and the whole history is revised with each edition.

## What it does not say

A Palanor calculation, not an IMF figure: rounding in the two published balances carries into it, and the IMF's own definition of net interest can differ slightly for a few countries. It excludes central-bank losses.

## Source

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.