Countries by Net foreign assets (current LCU)

Ranking 2024

Analysis

Net foreign assets measure the sum of foreign assets held by monetary authorities and deposit money banks, less their foreign liabilities, expressed in current local currency units with no adjustment for price changes over time. This dataset covers 179 countries sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code FM.AST.NFRG.CN), with data anchored to 2024. Of the 179 countries included, 173 (96.6%) have data from the last seven years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. The viability checks identified 20 extreme outliers using a 3-sigma threshold, and the raw range spans from -3,958,975,544,353 to 2,473,743,911,927,340, a spread of over 62,584%. Average year-over-year change across the dataset was 40.8%, below the 50% volatility threshold.

Iran ranks first with a value of 2,473,743,911,927,340 LCU, followed by Indonesia at rank 2 with 1,982,816,693,335,240 LCU and Korea, Rep. at rank 3 with 627,847,907,464,884 LCU. Uzbekistan (rank 4, 361,649,847,267,134 LCU) and Colombia (rank 5, 273,504,755,526,715 LCU) round out the top five. Japan, despite being one of the world's largest economies, appears at rank 8 with 78,973,200,000,000 LCU, and China appears at rank 13 with 30,268,231,153,201 LCU. High absolute values in local currency units are heavily influenced by each country's currency denomination and inflation history, meaning a large figure does not straightforwardly indicate a stronger external financial position relative to other countries.

In the middle of the ranking, Germany (rank 42, 2,008,977,948,476 LCU) and Saudi Arabia (rank 43, 1,998,406,398,881 LCU) sit close together despite their very different economic structures. The United States appears at rank 66 with 506,941,665,575 LCU, below countries such as the Kyrgyz Republic (rank 65, 533,832,229,194 LCU). At the bottom of the ranking, Pakistan is ranked 178 with -1,567,295,373,105 LCU and Sudan is ranked 179 with -3,958,975,544,353 LCU, indicating that foreign liabilities held by their monetary authorities and deposit money banks exceeded foreign assets. Norway (rank 174, -717,624,606,913 LCU) and Viet Nam (rank 173, -534,881,395,288 LCU) also show negative net foreign assets despite their relative economic standing in other contexts.

The primary limitation of this metric is that all values are in local currency units, making cross-country comparison unreliable without currency conversion. A country with a high-denomination or heavily depreciated currency will show a nominally larger figure than a country with a stable low-denomination currency, regardless of actual external financial strength. The 2024 data year has coverage for only 132 of 179 countries (73.7%) in the latest year, with the remainder drawn from earlier periods within the seven-year recency window. The metric does not account for sovereign wealth funds, government-held foreign assets outside the monetary system, or private sector foreign positions. The 20 extreme outliers identified at the 3-sigma threshold may reflect genuine structural conditions, currency denomination effects, or reporting differences rather than data errors.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code FM.AST.NFRG.CN, with a reference year of 2024. The metric is defined as follows: net foreign assets are the sum of foreign assets held by monetary authorities and deposit money banks, less their foreign liabilities. 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 dataset covers 179 countries, exceeding the 80-country coverage threshold. Of these, 173 (96.6%) have data from within the last seven years. All 179 datapoints (100%) are classified as official quality. The viability checks identified 20 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold. The raw value range runs from -3,958,975,544,353 to 2,473,743,911,927,340 LCU, a spread of approximately 62,584%. Average year-over-year change across the dataset was 40.8%. Latest-year (2024) coverage stands at 132 of 179 countries (73.7%), with remaining entries sourced from the most recent available year within the recency window. Cross-country comparisons should be treated with caution given that each country's value is expressed in its own local currency unit.

Sources

• World Bank