Countries by Monetary Sector credit to private sector (% GDP)

Hong Kong SAR, China ranks first with domestic credit to the private sector at 231.0% of GDP, meaning the stock of private credit is more than twice the size of its entire economy. At the other end, Somalia records a near-zero value of 0.00019% of GDP. The gap of more than 231 percentage points across 179 countries reflects the wide range in financial sector depth worldwide.

Finance category

Ranking 2024

Values shown in %.

Countries by Monetary Sector credit to private sector (% GDP)
Rank	Country	%
1	Hong Kong	231.04
2	China	194.17
3	Switzerland	170.39
4	South Korea	160.35
5	Denmark	144.09
6	New Zealand	129.80
7	Macao	129.63
8	Australia	129.32
9	Singapore	129.19
10	Sweden	125.52
11	Vietnam	124.96
12	Cambodia	124.66
13	Japan	124.07
14	Qatar	119.38
15	Malaysia	116.10
16	Thailand	115.12
17	United Kingdom	112.66
18	Norway	109.76
19	France	107.58
20	Lebanon	106.57
21	Panama	98.20
22	Nepal	92.11
23	Finland	92.03
24	Kuwait	91.96
25	Iceland	90.90
26	Luxembourg	85.14
27	Netherlands	82.33
28	Austria	81.77
29	Jordan	80.16
30	Germany	77.25
31	Portugal	77.21
32	Honduras	76.48
33	Fiji	76.00
34	Brazil	75.62
35	Chile	74.94
36	Spain	74.22
37	Bhutan	71.44
38	Bahrain	70.55
39	Mauritius	69.87
40	Israel	69.55
41	Palestine	68.54
42	Belgium	68.10
43	United Arab Emirates	67.97
44	Georgia	65.36
45	Armenia	64.23
46	Saint Kitts and Nevis	63.71
47	Malta	61.92
48	Tunisia	60.61
49	Estonia	60.54
50	Italy	60.37
51	Oman	59.75
52	Barbados	59.73
53	Slovakia	59.65
54	Bolivia	59.24
55	Iran	57.83
56	Paraguay	57.49
57	South Africa	57.48
58	Aruba	56.71
59	Cyprus	56.66
60	Vanuatu	56.33
61	Cabo Verde	56.33
62	Kosovo	55.66
63	Grenada	54.85
64	Morocco	54.84
65	Russia	54.64
66	Ecuador	54.63
67	El Salvador	53.08
68	North Macedonia	51.19
69	Costa Rica	50.97
70	Saint Lucia	50.72
71	India	50.14
72	Saudi Arabia	50.14
73	Philippines	49.81
74	Greece	48.54
75	Trinidad and Tobago	48.38
76	Namibia	48.28
77	Czechia	48.03
78	Bulgaria	47.07
79	Sri Lanka	47.01
80	Croatia	46.86
81	United States	46.84
82	Peru	45.67
83	Montenegro	45.27
84	Jamaica	45.13
85	Bosnia and Herzegovina	44.18
86	Belize	41.28
87	Bahamas	39.55
88	Colombia	39.53
89	Dominica	39.39
90	Mongolia	38.61
91	Antigua and Barbuda	38.55
92	Samoa	37.52
93	Burundi	37.38
94	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	36.66
95	Brunei	36.56
96	Guatemala	36.26
97	Türkiye	35.98
98	Lithuania	35.97
99	Bangladesh	35.81
100	Tonga	35.65
101	Slovenia	35.42
102	Timor-Leste	34.79
103	Poland	33.59
104	Uzbekistan	33.20
105	Botswana	32.93
106	Serbia	32.64
107	Hungary	32.44
108	Indonesia	31.83
109	Kenya	31.80
110	Maldives	31.56
111	Albania	31.52
112	Uruguay	31.08
113	Dominican Republic	31.00
114	Latvia	29.54
115	Senegal	29.23
116	Nicaragua	29.06
117	Myanmar	28.98
118	Egypt	27.57
119	Burkina Faso	27.16
120	Mexico	26.56
121	Lesotho	25.58
122	Kazakhstan	25.53
123	Togo	25.35
124	Seychelles	24.52
125	Azerbaijan	24.51
126	Moldova	24.26
127	Belarus	24.11
128	Ireland	23.78
129	Micronesia	23.43
130	Kyrgyzstan	23.16
131	Djibouti	23.10
132	Romania	22.73
133	Mauritania	22.72
134	Rwanda	22.61
135	Côte d'Ivoire	22.52
136	Mali	22.41
137	Solomon Islands	21.71
138	Eswatini	21.62
139	Algeria	19.03
140	Benin	18.98
141	Comoros	18.33
142	Mozambique	17.60
143	Suriname	17.02
144	Tanzania	16.75
145	Madagascar	16.64
146	Liberia	14.79
147	Papua New Guinea	14.52
148	Cameroon	14.09
149	Iraq	13.96
150	Republic of Congo	13.79
151	Ukraine	13.43
152	Gabon	13.38
153	Argentina	13.08
154	Libya	13.04
155	Central African Republic	13.04
156	Zambia	13.00
157	Uganda	12.57
158	Tajikistan	11.90
159	Pakistan	11.47
160	DR Congo	11.29
161	Guinea-Bissau	10.63
162	Guyana	10.45
163	Niger	10.20
164	Nigeria	9.56
165	Ghana	9.45
166	Guinea	9.09
167	Gambia	8.73
168	Chad	8.32
169	Sao Tome and Principe	7.82
170	Malawi	7.75
171	Zimbabwe	6.48
172	Angola	6.43
173	Equatorial Guinea	5.91
174	Sudan	5.64
175	Haiti	4.11
176	Sierra Leone	3.97
177	Afghanistan	3.10
178	South Sudan	2.30
179	Somalia	0.00

Analysis

This metric measures domestic credit to the private sector as a share of GDP. According to the source definition, it refers to financial resources provided to the private sector, such as through loans, purchases of nonequity securities, and trade credits and other accounts receivable, that establish a claim for repayment; for some countries these claims include credit to public enterprises. The value is expressed as a percentage of GDP. Data come from the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code FM.AST.PRVT.GD.ZS) for the reference year 2024. The dataset covers 179 countries, with 172 of 179 (96.1%) reporting data from the last seven years and 100% of datapoints classified as official quality. The ranking contains 21 extreme outliers identified at the three-standard-deviation threshold, and the data range runs from 0.00% to 231.04%, a spread of over 121 million percent relative to the minimum.

The top of the ranking is dominated by high-income financial centers and export-oriented Asian economies. Hong Kong SAR, China leads at rank 1 with 231.0%, followed by China at rank 2 with 194.2% and Switzerland at rank 3 with 170.4%. Korea ranks 4th at 160.3% and Denmark 5th at 144.1%. Australia (rank 8, 129.3%), Singapore (rank 9, 129.2%), and Japan (rank 13, 124.1%) also appear in the top tier. Notably, Viet Nam (rank 11, 125.0%) and Cambodia (rank 12, 124.7%) place among advanced financial markets, sitting ahead of many higher-income countries. Qatar (rank 14, 119.4%) and Malaysia (rank 15, 116.1%) represent high-credit Gulf and Southeast Asian economies respectively.

The middle of the ranking includes a broad mix of emerging markets and smaller economies. Brazil ranks 34th at 75.6% and India ranks 71st at 50.1%, while the United States ranks 81st at 46.8%, placing it well below many smaller or developing economies. Lebanon appears at rank 20 with 106.6%, reflecting a historically bank-heavy financial structure. Ireland ranks 128th at 23.8%, a counterintuitive placement for a high-income European economy. At the lower end, countries such as Nigeria (rank 164, 9.6%), Ghana (rank 165, 9.4%), and Chad (rank 168, 8.3%) show very limited private credit relative to GDP, while South Sudan (rank 178, 2.3%) and Somalia (rank 179, 0.00019%) record the lowest values in the dataset.

Several limitations affect interpretation of this metric. The source note acknowledges that for some countries the figures include credit to public enterprises, meaning comparisons across countries may not be consistent. The ratio is sensitive to GDP size: a contracting economy can cause the ratio to rise even if the absolute level of credit is unchanged, and vice versa. Countries with large informal financial sectors or non-bank credit channels may understate actual private credit. The consistency check shows that only 128 of 179 countries (71.5%) have data from the latest reference year 2024, meaning some values reflect earlier years and are not fully contemporaneous. The 21 extreme outliers flagged at the three-sigma threshold indicate that a small number of values may warrant additional scrutiny before direct comparison.

Methodology

Rankings are based on the World Bank World Development Indicators indicator FM.AST.PRVT.GD.ZS, referencing data year 2024. The metric is defined in the source note as follows: domestic credit to private sector refers to financial resources provided to the private sector, such as through loans, purchases of nonequity securities, and trade credits and other accounts receivable, that establish a claim for repayment; for some countries these claims include credit to public enterprises. Values are expressed as a percentage of GDP. The dataset covers 179 countries, exceeding the viability threshold of 80. Of these, 172 (96.1%) have data from within the last seven years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality, above the 70% threshold. Data consistency for the latest year (2024) stands at 71.5% (128 of 179 countries). The ranking contains 21 extreme outliers identified at the three-standard-deviation threshold. Average year-over-year change is 7.3%, well below the 50% volatility threshold. Higher values indicate greater financial depth and are treated as better in this ranking.

Sources

World Bank