New Zealand Government Debt (% of GDP)

Everything government owes, across all levels of government, compared with the size of the economy.

51.4%

+4.1pp vs 2023

2024 · Annual data

Not applicable, annual data

Matches the latest releaseNot refreshed recently, awaiting the next release

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Government Debt (% of GDP)

1985 to 2024

Source: IMF World Economic Outlook (GGXWDG_NGDP) · general government gross debt, % of GDP, annual · actual years only. The IMF's figures for the years after the one shown are projections, which this site does not publish.

New Zealand Government Debt (% of GDP) in context

Worked out from the published series shown above.

In New Zealand, the government debt rose by 4.1pp in 2024, from 47.3% in 2023.

It is the highest reading since 1993.

Over the past five years it has ranged from 31.8% in 2019 to 51.4% in 2024.

Its average since 1985 is 38.9%, and the latest reading is above that.

New Zealand is 25th of 36 countries in our Government Debt to GDP by Country ranking.

How this series is defined

Everything you need to check the figure against the source.

Source
IMF
Series
World
Frequency
Annual
Unit
%
Seasonal adjustment
Not applicable, annual data
Latest observation
2024
Revision status
Latest published estimate, subject to revision

This is the IMF's gross measure, so it differs from the Treasury's net core Crown debt.

Data refreshed 2026-10-07. Figures are the latest published observations and can be revised.

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