Countries by Net domestic credit (current LCU)

Ranking 2024

Analysis

Net domestic credit measures the sum of net claims on the central government and claims on other sectors of the domestic economy. Per the World Bank source note, this indicator is expressed in current prices, meaning no adjustment has been made to account for price changes over time, and this series is expressed in local currency units. Because each country reports in its own currency, values are not directly comparable across borders — a ranking of 1st does not necessarily indicate the largest credit economy in real terms. Data covers 179 countries drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code FM.AST.DOMS.CN), with 168 of 179 countries (93.9%) reporting data from the last seven years and 100% of datapoints classified as official-quality. The data year is 2024, though only 129 of 179 countries (72.1%) report data for 2024 specifically. The viability check identified 27 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, and the raw range spans from -79,378,053,337 to 12,108,290,082,835,600, a spread of over 15,254,051%.

The top of the ranking is dominated by countries whose local currencies carry very low unit values relative to major reserve currencies, which inflates LCU-denominated totals. Viet Nam (rank 1) posts 12,108,290,082,835,600 LCU, followed closely by Indonesia (rank 2) at 10,373,285,437,586,300 LCU and Iran (rank 3) at 10,211,700,000,000,000 LCU. Korea (rank 4) records 5,011,734,994,400,000 LCU and Japan (rank 5) records 1,850,725,600,000,000 LCU. Colombia (rank 6) at 871,879,708,510,798 LCU and Uzbekistan (rank 7) at 356,967,079,231,119 LCU follow. China, despite being one of the world's largest economies, ranks only 8th at 353,253,824,220,714 LCU, illustrating that currency denomination strongly shapes placement.

The middle of the ranking includes a diverse mix of economies. The United States ranks 25th at 31,105,233,374,668 LCU, while Germany ranks 48th at 6,048,106,000,000 LCU and the United Kingdom ranks 61st at 3,886,362,000,000 LCU, reflecting that their currencies have higher unit values. At the lower end, Kosovo ranks 159th at 5,609,689,174 LCU and Montenegro ranks 164th at 3,645,429,941 LCU, both using the euro as their currency. Timor-Leste (rank 178) records a negative value of -95,207,269 LCU and Afghanistan (rank 179) records -79,378,053,337 LCU, indicating that net claims on the central government are negative enough to pull the total below zero.

This metric carries significant limitations for cross-country comparison. Because values are in local currency units with no exchange-rate or purchasing-power adjustment, rankings reflect currency denomination as much as underlying credit activity. Inflation-prone economies with weak currencies will mechanically score higher in LCU terms. The 27 extreme outliers flagged at the 3-sigma threshold suggest that some values are heavily influenced by hyperinflationary environments or currency redenominations. The 72.1% consistency rate for 2024 data means that many country values are drawn from prior years, introducing temporal inconsistency. Negative values for Timor-Leste and Afghanistan indicate net negative government positions that outweigh claims on other sectors, but the causes cannot be inferred from this data alone.

Methodology

Data is sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code FM.AST.DOMS.CN, for data year 2024. The metric is defined as follows per the World Bank source note: net domestic credit is the sum of net claims on the central government and claims on other sectors of the domestic economy. This indicator is expressed in current prices, meaning no adjustment has been made to account for price changes over time. This series is expressed in local currency units. The ranking covers 179 countries, all reporting official-quality data (100% official classification). Of these, 168 countries (93.9%) have data from within the last seven years, and 129 countries (72.1%) report data specifically for 2024. The viability check identified 27 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold. The raw value range spans from -79,378,053,337 LCU (Afghanistan) to 12,108,290,082,835,600 LCU (Viet Nam), a spread of approximately 15,254,052%. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 17.5%. Because all values are in local currency units, cross-country comparisons are not meaningful without currency conversion.

Sources

• World Bank