Countries by Total reserves in months of imports
Libya ranks first globally with 31.57 months of imports covered by total reserves, more than double the second-ranked Afghanistan at 16.63 months. At the other end, Luxembourg holds just 0.06 months of import cover. The 52,466% spread between top and bottom reflects the vast differences in trade volumes, resource wealth, and reserve management across 172 countries.
Ranking 2024
Analysis
Total reserves in months of imports measures how many months a country could pay for its imports using its stock of reserve assets. The World Bank defines reserve assets as external assets, including monetary gold, that are readily available to and controlled by monetary authorities for meeting balance of payments financing needs, for intervention in exchange markets to affect the currency exchange rate, and for other related purposes (such as maintaining confidence in the currency and the economy, and serving as a basis for foreign borrowing). The unit is months of import coverage, where higher values indicate greater external buffer. Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code FI.RES.TOTL.MO) for the 2024 reference year. The dataset covers 172 countries, with 95.9% of entries sourced from within the last seven years and 100% classified as official data. Twenty extreme outliers were identified at the 3-standard-deviation threshold.
The top of the ranking is concentrated among oil-exporting states, large Asian economies, and a few smaller island nations. Libya leads at 31.57 months (rank 1), followed by Afghanistan at 16.63 months (rank 2) and Algeria at 16.53 months (rank 3). The Russian Federation sits fourth at 16.26 months and Israel fifth at 15.83 months. Saudi Arabia (rank 6, 15.06 months), Japan (rank 9, 13.05 months), and China (rank 11, 11.23 months) also appear in the top tier. Small Pacific economies including Vanuatu (rank 10, 12.60 months) and Tonga (rank 13, 10.80 months) feature prominently, likely reflecting low import volumes relative to their reserve holdings.
The middle of the ranking clusters between roughly 3 and 7 months of coverage. Brazil sits at rank 21 with 7.96 months, India at rank 26 with 7.52 months, and South Africa at rank 52 with 5.67 months. The United States ranks 134th at just 1.94 months, placing it below countries such as Belarus (rank 133, 1.96 months) and Sweden (rank 132, 1.96 months). Several major eurozone economies fall near the bottom: Ireland ranks 171st at 0.14 months, Luxembourg last at 0.06 months, the Netherlands 161st at 0.73 months, and Belgium 159th at 0.77 months. Lebanon, despite its well-documented economic difficulties, appears at rank 7 with 13.60 months, which represents a notable anomaly given its import structure and reserve reporting context.
This metric has several important limitations. Countries that share a common currency or hold reserves collectively through a central institution may report low individual figures that do not reflect the full external buffer available to them. Small economies with very low import volumes can achieve high month-coverage values even with modest absolute reserves. The 73.8% consistency rate for the latest year (2024) means that 26.2% of entries use data from prior years, which may reduce cross-country comparability. The presence of 20 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, including Libya's value of 31.57 months, suggests that the distribution is heavily skewed and that mean-based comparisons are of limited use. The metric also does not capture reserve quality, currency composition, or encumbrances on reported reserves.
Methodology
Data are sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code FI.RES.TOTL.MO, reference year 2024. The metric measures total reserve assets in months of imports. Reserve assets are defined in the source as: external assets, including monetary gold, that are readily available to and controlled by monetary authorities for meeting balance of payments financing needs, for intervention in exchange markets to affect the currency exchange rate, and for other related purposes (such as maintaining confidence in the currency and the economy, and serving as a basis for foreign borrowing). The dataset covers 172 countries, exceeding the 80-country coverage threshold. Of these, 165 out of 172 (95.9%) have data from within the last seven years, and 100% of data points are classified as official. The latest reference year (2024) has complete data for 127 of 172 countries (73.8%), with remaining entries drawn from the most recent available year. Twenty extreme outliers were identified using a 3-standard-deviation threshold. The value range spans 0.06 months (Luxembourg) to 31.57 months (Libya), a spread of 52,466%. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 21.7%, within the 50% volatility threshold. No microstates (populations under 1 million) are present in the dataset.