West Bank and Gaza

Latest government debt 48.5% of GDP (2023, Central govt (IMF GDD)). No sovereign-debt crisis in the chronologies.

West Bank and Gaza’s latest debt of 48.5% is below the 80.7% median at which sovereign crises of the 2000+ era began. This is a comparison, not a prediction. A country can default well below these medians (Argentina defaulted in 2001 at 48.0% of GDP) or carry the world’s highest ratio without defaulting (Japan, above 230%). Default risk turns on debt composition, fiscal capacity, credit history and market access, not the level alone.

Official risk classification

West Bank and Gaza is not in the OECD Country Risk Classification set, so no export-credit risk category is recorded. The classification covers the countries the OECD Arrangement participants price export credit for; absence here is a coverage limit, not a zero-risk signal.

Debt trajectory, 1980 onward

Debt to GDP by perimeter, observed years only (no IMF forecast years). Central-government debt is mechanically below general government (it excludes state, local and social-security debt). No sovereign-debt crisis years fall in this window.

Central government (GDD)General government (WEO)

Source: IMF Global Debt Database (Mbaye, Moreno-Badia & Chae, IMF WP/18/111) | IMF World Economic Outlook Debt is % of GDP; crisis-year shading from the sovereign-debt chronologies. Methodology

Debt profile

Latest by perimeter

Central government (IMF GDD): 48.5% (2023)
General gov gross (IMF WEO, April 2026 edition): 56.1% (2024)

History

Peak debt: 50.2% (2021)
Sovereign crises: 0
Vs 2000+ crisis-start median: -32.2

External debt (World Bank IDS)

No IDS external-debt series for West Bank and Gaza. The World Bank’s International Debt Statistics covers low- and middle-income borrowing economies only, so high-income economies are absent by construction.

Debt in default (BoC-BoE CRAG)

No external debt in default recorded for West Bank and Gaza in the BoC-BoE Sovereign Default Database (1960 onward).

Sovereign-debt crisis history

No sovereign-debt crisis is recorded for West Bank and Gaza in the five chronologies.

Source: Global Macro Database 2026_06 (Müller, Xu, Lehbib & Chen 2025) | Reinhart-Rogoff via HBS BFFS | Laeven & Valencia (2020) Methodology

Restructuring history and creditor losses

No sovereign-debt restructuring on record for West Bank and Gaza in the Cruces–Trebesch haircut database (1815 to present).

Reading this profile

Debt levels mix perimeters. The headline and debt-at-start figures fall back through IMF general government, then central government, then WEO gross debt, then (before 1980) the GMD historical series. Central-government readings understate the general-government ratio.
Crisis flags end in 2016 (Reinhart-Rogoff) and 2017 (GMD, Laeven-Valencia), while debt runs to 2024. “Years since last crisis” and the absence of recent crises reflect where the sources stop, not a guarantee of calm.
Debt level is a weak predictor of default on its own; see the methodology for the debt-intolerance evidence and the full construction.