Published twice a year, the Frontier Markets Debt Monitor tracks indebtedness by sector across key frontier markets and low-income countries. IIF members can subscribe here.
Total debt in frontier markets surged to a new record high of $3.5 trillion in 2021—some $500 billion above pre-pandemic levels. However, after reaching an all-time high in 2020, FM debt declined to 108% of GDP in 2021—helped by recovery and inflation.
Total debt in frontier markets (FM) reached a record high of nearly 110% of GDP in 2020, up from less than 100% in 2019. We have added 15 new countries to our FM debt database.
Total frontier market debt hit a new record of over 120% of GDP in Q2 2020, up 6 percentage points from end-2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a spotlight on rising global debt levels and sovereign debt vulnerabilities.
Driven mainly by government borrowing, the debt to GDP ratio in frontier markets hit a fresh all-time high of 114% in Q3 2019, with total debt nearing $3.2 trillion, up by nearly $75 billion in the first three quarters of 2019.
Frontier market debt hit $3.2 trillion in Q2 2019, up by over $630 billion since Q2 2016. While this marks the slowest quarterly growth in debt since 2015, it also puts total frontier debt/GDP at a record high of over 115%. We have added Republic of Congo, Gambia, and Mozambique to our frontier market debt monitor database.
Frontier market debt rose by over $250 billion in 2018, reaching $3.2 trillion for the 26 countries in our sample. Zambia, Vietnam, and Tunisia saw the largest rise in debt ratios.