Iceland: External debt

* indicates monthly or quarterly data series
 Iceland

External debt, percent of GDP

 Latest value 71.66
 Year 2024
 Measure percent
 Data availability 1998 - 2024
 Average 297.20
 Min - Max 68.97 - 918.74
 Source The World Bank
 Available for Data download
The latest value from 2024 is 71.66 percent, a decline from 75.59 percent in 2023. In comparison, the world average is 132.26 percent, based on data from 119 countries. Historically, the average for Iceland from 1998 to 2024 is 297.2 percent. The minimum value, 68.97 percent, was reached in 1998 while the maximum of 918.74 percent was recorded in 2009. See the global rankings for that indicator or use the country comparator to compare trends over time.
Select indicator
* indicates monthly or quarterly data series
From   To 


 Recent values Iceland: External debt
 2024 71.66
 2023 75.59
 2022 74.77
 2021 83.30
 2020 89.26
 2019 77.98
 2018 75.27
 2017 88.36




Definition: The total debt of public and private borrowers held by non-residents as percent of GDP. Source: Kose, M. Ayhan, Sergio Kurlat, Franziska Ohnsorge, and Naotaka Sugawara. 2022. "A Cross-Country Database of Fiscal Space." Journal of International Money and Finance 128 (November): 102682.

Other resources:

Download data from our database

All indicators for Iceland

All indicators on the website

Article: Are trade deficits bad for the economy?

Article: Sources of economic growth

Article: Currency values and investment returns

All articles



 Related indicators Latest Reference Measure
 Terms of trade 88.40 2024 percent
 Trade openness 82.49 2025 percent
 Financial openness 2.037 2022 index points
 Exports, percent of GDP 40.11 2025 percent
 Exports, billion dollars 15.48 2025 billion U.S. dollars
 Growth of exports 0.99 2025 percent
 Imports, percent of GDP 42.37 2025 percent
 Imports, billion dollars 16.35 2025 billion U.S. dollars
 Foreign Direct Investment, percent of GDP -0.52 2025 percent
 Foreign Direct Investment, billion dollars 2.83 2024 billion U.S. dollars
 Portfolio investment inflows, equities 67.69 2025 million dollars (current)
 Current account, percent of GDP -3.48 2025 percent
 Current account, in dollars -1.34 2025 billion U.S. dollars
 Current Account, quarterly -6.38 6/2026 percent
 Trade balance, percent of GDP -2.26 2025 percent
 Trade balance, in dollars -0.82 2025 billion U.S. dollars
 Reserves 7.73 2025 billion U.S. dollars
 Remittances, percent of GDP 0.73 2025 percent
 Remittances 264.63 2025 million U.S. dollars
 Net errors and omissions -167.64 2025 million USD
 External debt 71.66 2024 percent
 Short-term external debt 11.58 2024 percent
 Short-term debt to reserves 43.10 2024 percent
This site uses cookies.
Learn more here


OK