This paper describes the compilation of the first truly comprehensive historical public debt
database (HPDD) covering gross government debt-to-GDP ratios for nearly the entire
country membership of the IMF and spanning a long time period. The HPDD covers 174
countries and starts from 1880 for most G-7 countries and a few other advanced and
emerging economies, and from 1920 for additional advanced and emerging economies.2 For
low-income countries (LICs), data coverage generally starts in 1970. The HPDD was
compiled by bringing together a number of other databases of individual researchers or
institutional bodies, as well as information from official government publications and
publications of the League of Nations and the United Nations. For the most recent years, data
are linked to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook (WEO) database, facilitating regular
updates going forward. The definitions of debt and income variables are documented, along
with the time and country coverage of the underlying datasets. The HPDD is available
publically in electronic format on the Fiscal Monitor Webpage of IMF.ORG
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