The Global Risks Index
NXS-GRX · GRX-IDX-FIS · MSF Macro-financial and structural fragility

Fiscal and public debt risk index

Expert-weighted geometric mean of the six fiscal sub-indices and the MAC external vulnerability sub-index, each on 0-10 and floored at 0.1 before aggregation.

Page GRX-IDX-FISEdition Baseline Edition 2026Evidence close 2026-09-30Indicator Standard IDX.FIS.debt.fiscal_riskValues not yet publishedSnapshot 31a753f76
FIG 1 · Method card
Aggregation

geometric

expert weights · floor 0.1 where geometric

Uncertainty

1,000 draws

normalisation, weights, aggregation

Structure

7 components

27 leaf indicators

Coverage

71% minimum

modelled share ≤ 20%

From the Indicator Standard definition of this index.
27
leaf indicators
7
components
1,000
Monte Carlo draws
5
series read it
01Construction

From indicators to the composite

One domain view of sovereign fiscal risk that partly penalises weakness in any pillar; the sub-indices stay visible beside it. It is not a debt-distress rating and never replaces the published LIC-DSF or SRDSF signals.

computation
How Fiscal and public debt risk is computed
Graph37 nodes
Graph
01Indicators
02Sub-indices
03Domain index
04Pillar
05Composite
100%
List
  1. General government gross debt, share of GDP
    Indicator · IND · %
    All liabilities of general government that require future payment of interest or principal (debt securities, loans, other accounts payable and similar instruments), at nominal or face value, as a percentage of GDP.
  2. General government net debt, share of GDP
    Indicator · IND · %
    Gross general government debt minus financial assets held in the form of the same debt instruments, as a percentage of GDP.
  3. Present value of public external debt, share of GDP
    Indicator · IND · %
    Present value of public and publicly guaranteed external debt, discounted at the LIC-DSF unified discount rate, as a percentage of GDP.
  4. Present value of public external debt, share of exports
    Indicator · IND · %
    Present value of public and publicly guaranteed external debt as a percentage of exports of goods and services.
  5. Public gross financing needs, share of GDP
    Indicator · IND · %
    General government overall deficit plus amortisation of debt falling due in the year (including short-term debt), as a percentage of GDP.
  6. Public external debt service, share of revenue
    Indicator · IND · %
    Principal and interest paid on public and publicly guaranteed external debt in the year as a percentage of general government revenue excluding grants.
  7. Public external debt service, share of exports
    Indicator · IND · %
    Principal and interest paid on public and publicly guaranteed external debt in the year as a percentage of exports of goods, services and primary income.
  8. Sovereign bond spread over benchmark
    Indicator · IND · %
    Yield spread of the sovereign's foreign-currency bonds over US Treasury (or Bund) securities of matched duration, in percentage points, period average.
  9. Foreign-currency share of general government debt
    Indicator · IND · %
    Share of general government debt denominated in, or indexed to, a foreign currency, at end of period.
  10. Short-term share of general government debt (residual maturity)
    Indicator · IND · %
    Share of general government debt falling due within twelve months, by residual maturity, at end of period.
  11. Non-resident holdings of general government debt
    Indicator · IND · %
    Share of general government debt held by non-resident creditors (official and private), at end of period.
  12. Average time to maturity of general government debt
    Indicator · IND · a
    Weighted average residual maturity of general government debt principal, in years, at end of period.
  13. Concessional share of public external debt
    Indicator · IND · %
    Share of public and publicly guaranteed external debt contracted on concessional terms (grant element of at least 35 %), at end of period.
  14. Rigid expenditure, share of revenue
    Indicator · IND · %
    Compensation of employees, interest and social benefits (GFSM 2014 items 21, 24 and 27) together as a percentage of general government revenue.
  15. Interest payments, share of revenue
    Indicator · IND · %
    General government interest payments (GFSM 2014 item 24) as a percentage of general government revenue.
  16. General government revenue, share of GDP
    Indicator · IND · %
    Total general government revenue as a percentage of GDP.
  17. Natural-resource revenue, share of general government revenue
    Indicator · IND · %
    Revenue from oil, gas and mining (royalties, resource taxes, profit transfers from state resource companies) as a percentage of total general government revenue.
  18. General government overall balance, share of GDP
    Indicator · IND · %
    General government revenue minus total expenditure (net lending or net borrowing, GFSM 2014) in the year, as a percentage of GDP.
  19. General government primary balance, share of GDP
    Indicator · IND · %
    Overall general government balance excluding net interest payments, as a percentage of GDP.
  20. Interest-rate-growth differential (r - g)
    Indicator · IND · %
    Effective real interest rate on general government debt (interest paid over the previous year's debt stock, deflated by the GDP deflator) minus real GDP growth, three-year average, in percentage points.
  21. Debt of non-financial public corporations, share of GDP
    Indicator · IND · %
    Gross debt of non-financial public corporations (state-owned enterprises outside general government) as a percentage of GDP, where reported.
  22. Outstanding government guarantees, share of GDP
    Indicator · IND · %
    Stock of explicit one-off loan guarantees issued by general government (including public-private partnership guarantees) outstanding at end of period, as a percentage of GDP.
  23. Expected annual fiscal cost of disasters, share of GDP
    Indicator · IND · %
    Modelled average annual cost to the budget of disaster relief, reconstruction of public assets and revenue loss, net of pre-arranged risk financing, as a percentage of GDP.
  24. Current account balance, share of GDP
    Indicator · IND · %
    Balance of trade in goods and services, primary and secondary income, as a percentage of GDP (BPM6).
  25. Reserves in months of imports
    Indicator · IND · mo
    Gross international reserves (including gold) divided by the monthly value of imports of goods and services.
  26. Short-term external debt, share of reserves
    Indicator · IND · %
    External debt with original maturity of one year or less as a percentage of gross international reserves.
  27. External debt stocks, share of GNI
    Indicator · IND · %
    Total external debt owed to non-residents (public, publicly guaranteed, private non-guaranteed, IMF credit and short-term) as a percentage of GNI.
  28. Public debt burden sub-index
    Sub-index · SUB · w 2 · 22.2%
    Composite of gross and net general government debt and the present value of public external debt to GDP and to exports.
  29. Financing pressure sub-index
    Sub-index · SUB · w 2 · 22.2%
    Composite of gross financing needs, public external debt service to revenue and to exports, and the sovereign bond spread.
  30. Debt composition risk sub-index
    Sub-index · SUB · w 1.5 · 16.7%
    Composite of the foreign-currency share, short-term share, non-resident holdings, average maturity and concessional share of public debt.
  31. Budget rigidity and revenue weakness sub-index
    Sub-index · SUB · w 1 · 11.1%
    Composite of rigid expenditure to revenue, interest to revenue, revenue to GDP and resource-revenue dependence.
  32. Fiscal position sub-index
    Sub-index · SUB · w 1 · 11.1%
    Composite of the overall balance, the primary balance and the interest-rate-growth differential.
  33. Contingent liability sub-index
    Sub-index · SUB · w 1 · 11.1%
    Composite of state-owned-enterprise debt, outstanding guarantees and the expected annual fiscal cost of disasters.
  34. External vulnerability sub-index
    Sub-index · SUB · w 0.5 · 5.6%
    Composite of current-account balance, reserve cover, short-term debt to reserves and external debt.
  35. Fiscal and public debt risk index
    Domain index · IDX · geometric
    Expert-weighted geometric mean of the six fiscal sub-indices and the MAC external vulnerability sub-index, each on 0-10 and floored at 0.1 before aggregation.
  36. Macro-financial and structural fragility
    Pillar · PILLAR · 5 indices
    How much fiscal, financial, external, digital and technological room does the system have before stress turns into crisis?
  37. NXS-GRX Composite Risk
    Composite · COMPOSITE · four pillars
    Composite = (HTE × VUL × MSF × LCC)^(1/4), each pillar on 0–10 floored at 0.1; pillar = expert-weighted geometric mean of its domain indices
Not runIn progressDone
FIG 2. 27 indicators, 7 components, real Indicator Standard weights (the bar under each node is its share). Select a node to trace what it feeds and what feeds it; Simulate run plays the computation in order.
02Simulator

Run this index's own aggregation

Set each component, change the aggregation or the weight uncertainty, and watch the interval, the class probability and each component's contribution respond.

FIG 3 · Simulator: aggregate fiscal and public debt risk on your numbers
Components (0 to 10)
3.0
5.0
7.0
4.0
6.0
3.0
5.0
25
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runs in your browser
Contribution of each component (leave one out)
Simulator: the index's published aggregation run on numbers you set, with 1,000 draws over weights and aggregation. The slider positions are starting points for the explainer, not NXS-GRX (canonical data, provenance and risk) values.
03Method

Treatment, normalisation, weighting, aggregation, uncertainty

Treatment
NONE
Outlier rule
|skew| > 2, kurtosis > 3.5
Normalisation
IDENTITY
Imputation
NONE
Coverage minimum
71% of components
Modelled share cap
20% of weight
Weighting
expert
Aggregation
geometric
Scale
0 to 10
Uncertainty
1,000 Monte Carlo runs over normalisation, weights, aggregation
Framework basis
OECD/JRC Handbook (2008); JRC COIN 10-step guide; INFORM geometric aggregation; IMF SRDSF and IMF/WB LIC-DSF (pillar structure only)
Very low0.0 to < 2.0
Low2.0 to < 3.5
Medium3.5 to < 5.0
High5.0 to < 6.5
Very high6.5 to 10.0
04Components

7 components, 27 indicators

Public debt burden sub-index w 2

Composite of gross and net general government debt and the present value of public external debt to GDP and to exports.

IndicatorUnitEvidenceSourcesShare
General government gross debt, share of GDPIND.FIS.debt.gross_debt.gdp%Class Aimf-weo, imf-gdd, wb-qpsd37.5%
General government net debt, share of GDPIND.FIS.debt.net_debt.gdp%Class Bimf-weo12.5%
Present value of public external debt, share of GDPIND.FIS.debt.external_ppg_pv.gdp%Class Cimf-wb-lic-dsf, wb-ids25.0%
Present value of public external debt, share of exportsIND.FIS.debt.external_ppg_pv.exports%Class Cimf-wb-lic-dsf, wb-ids25.0%

Financing pressure sub-index w 2

Composite of gross financing needs, public external debt service to revenue and to exports, and the sovereign bond spread.

IndicatorUnitEvidenceSourcesShare
Public gross financing needs, share of GDPIND.FIS.financing.gross_financing_needs.gdp%Class Cimf-dsa, imf-fiscal-monitor, national-dmo37.5%
Public external debt service, share of revenueIND.FIS.financing.external_ppg_debt_service.revenue%Class Bimf-wb-lic-dsf, wb-ids, imf-gfs25.0%
Public external debt service, share of exportsIND.FIS.financing.external_ppg_debt_service.exports%Class Awb-ids, wb-wdi25.0%
Sovereign bond spread over benchmarkIND.FIS.financing.sovereign_spread%Class Bjpm-embi:licensed, national-bond-yields, imf-dsa12.5%

Debt composition risk sub-index w 1.5

Composite of the foreign-currency share, short-term share, non-resident holdings, average maturity and concessional share of public debt.

IndicatorUnitEvidenceSourcesShare
Foreign-currency share of general government debtIND.FIS.debt.fx_share%Class Bwb-qpsd, national-dmo, imf-dsa20.0%
Short-term share of general government debt (residual maturity)IND.FIS.debt.short_term_share%Class Bwb-qpsd, national-dmo, imf-dsa20.0%
Non-resident holdings of general government debtIND.FIS.debt.nonresident_share%Class Cimf-sovereign-investor-base, wb-qpsd, national-dmo20.0%
Average time to maturity of general government debtIND.FIS.debt.average_maturityaClass Bnational-dmo, oecd-sovereign-borrowing, imf-dsa20.0%
Concessional share of public external debtIND.FIS.debt.concessional_share%Class Awb-ids20.0%

Budget rigidity and revenue weakness sub-index w 1

Composite of rigid expenditure to revenue, interest to revenue, revenue to GDP and resource-revenue dependence.

IndicatorUnitEvidenceSourcesShare
Rigid expenditure, share of revenueIND.FIS.expenditure.rigid_share.revenue%Class Bderived:imf-gfs28.6%
Interest payments, share of revenueIND.FIS.expenditure.interest.revenue%Class Aimf-gfs, imf-weo, wb-wdi28.6%
General government revenue, share of GDPIND.FIS.revenue.total.gdp%Class Aimf-weo, imf-gfs, unu-wider-grd28.6%
Natural-resource revenue, share of general government revenueIND.FIS.revenue.resource_revenue_share%Class Bunu-wider-grd, imf-gfs, eiti14.3%

Fiscal position sub-index w 1

Composite of the overall balance, the primary balance and the interest-rate-growth differential.

IndicatorUnitEvidenceSourcesShare
General government overall balance, share of GDPIND.FIS.balance.overall_balance.gdp%Class Aimf-weo, imf-gfs, wb-wdi33.3%
General government primary balance, share of GDPIND.FIS.balance.primary_balance.gdp%Class Aimf-weo, imf-gfs33.3%
Interest-rate-growth differential (r - g)IND.FIS.balance.interest_growth_differential%Class Cderived:imf-weo, derived:nis:IND.MAC.output.real_gdp_growth33.3%

Contingent liability sub-index w 1

Composite of state-owned-enterprise debt, outstanding guarantees and the expected annual fiscal cost of disasters.

IndicatorUnitEvidenceSourcesShare
Debt of non-financial public corporations, share of GDPIND.FIS.contingent.soe_debt.gdp%Class Cwb-qpsd, imf-public-sector-balance-sheet, national-soe-reports40.0%
Outstanding government guarantees, share of GDPIND.FIS.contingent.guarantees.gdp%Class Cnational-fiscal-risk-statements, wb-ppi, imf-dsa40.0%
Expected annual fiscal cost of disasters, share of GDPIND.FIS.contingent.disaster_fiscal_cost.gdp%Class Dundrr-gar-aal, wb-country-climate-development-reports, imf-dsa-climate-annex20.0%

External vulnerability sub-index w 0.5

Composite of current-account balance, reserve cover, short-term debt to reserves and external debt.

IndicatorUnitEvidenceSourcesShare
Current account balance, share of GDPIND.MAC.external.current_account.gdp%Class Awb-wdi, imf-weo, imf-bop25.0%
Reserves in months of importsIND.MAC.external.reserves_import_covermoClass Awb-wdi, imf-irfcl25.0%
Short-term external debt, share of reservesIND.MAC.external.short_term_debt_to_reserves%Class Awb-ids, wb-wdi25.0%
External debt stocks, share of GNIIND.MAC.external.external_debt.gni%Class Awb-ids25.0%
05Domain

Fiscal and public debt

Government revenue, spending, balances, debt stock, composition, financing needs and contingent liabilities.

Sub-domainIndicators
Fiscal balance4
Revenue5
Expenditure3
Debt stock and composition9
Gross financing needs5
Contingent liabilities3
Debt-carrying capacity8

Anchor frameworks (pillar structure and definitions only): IMF GFS 2014; IMF/WB LIC-DSF; IMF SRDSF; Sovereign rating fiscal pillar.

06Indicators

All 37 fiscal and public debt indicators

FIG 4 · Indicators in scope, by domain and sub-domain
FIS · 37
Area is the number of indicator definitions; colour is the pillar the domain feeds (Macroeconomy and Space feed through their indices). Select a block to filter the table.
IndicatorDomainSub-domainComponentUnitLevelsCrosswalks
General government overall balance, share of GDPIND.FIS.balance.overall_balance.gdpFISFiscal balancevulnerability%COUNTRYIMF_WEO GGXCNL_NGDP WB_WDI GC.NLD.TOTL.GD.ZS
General government primary balance, share of GDPIND.FIS.balance.primary_balance.gdpFISFiscal balancevulnerability%COUNTRYIMF_WEO GGXONLB_NGDP
General government structural balance, share of potential GDPIND.FIS.balance.structural_balance.potgdpFISFiscal balancevulnerability%COUNTRYIMF_WEO GGSB_NPGDP
Interest-rate-growth differential (r - g)IND.FIS.balance.interest_growth_differentialFISFiscal balancevulnerability%COUNTRY
General government revenue, current US dollarsIND.FIS.revenue.total.usdFISRevenuecontext[USD]COUNTRYIMF_GFS 1
General government revenue, share of GDPIND.FIS.revenue.total.gdpFISRevenuecoping capacity%COUNTRYIMF_WEO GGR_NGDP SDG 17.1.1 WB_WDI GC.REV.XGRT.GD.ZS
Tax revenue, share of GDPIND.FIS.revenue.tax.gdpFISRevenuecoping capacity%COUNTRYWB_WDI GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS IMF_GFS 11
Tax effort (actual over estimated tax capacity)IND.FIS.revenue.tax_effortFISRevenueadaptive capacity1COUNTRY
Natural-resource revenue, share of general government revenueIND.FIS.revenue.resource_revenue_shareFISRevenuevulnerability%COUNTRY
General government expenditure, share of GDPIND.FIS.expenditure.total.gdpFISExpenditurecontext%COUNTRYIMF_WEO GGX_NGDP WB_WDI GC.XPN.TOTL.GD.ZS
Rigid expenditure, share of revenueIND.FIS.expenditure.rigid_share.revenueFISExpenditurevulnerability%COUNTRY
Interest payments, share of revenueIND.FIS.expenditure.interest.revenueFISExpenditurevulnerability%COUNTRYWB_WDI GC.XPN.INTP.RV.ZS
General government gross debt, share of GDPIND.FIS.debt.gross_debt.gdpFISDebt stock and compositionvulnerability%COUNTRYIMF_WEO GGXWDG_NGDP WB_WDI GC.DOD.TOTL.GD.ZS
General government net debt, share of GDPIND.FIS.debt.net_debt.gdpFISDebt stock and compositionvulnerability%COUNTRYIMF_WEO GGXWDN_NGDP
Foreign-currency share of general government debtIND.FIS.debt.fx_shareFISDebt stock and compositionvulnerability%COUNTRY
Short-term share of general government debt (residual maturity)IND.FIS.debt.short_term_shareFISDebt stock and compositionvulnerability%COUNTRY
Average time to maturity of general government debtIND.FIS.debt.average_maturityFISDebt stock and compositionvulnerabilityaCOUNTRY
Non-resident holdings of general government debtIND.FIS.debt.nonresident_shareFISDebt stock and compositionvulnerability%COUNTRY
Concessional share of public external debtIND.FIS.debt.concessional_shareFISDebt stock and compositionvulnerability%COUNTRYWB_WDI DT.DOD.ALLC.ZS
Present value of public external debt, share of GDPIND.FIS.debt.external_ppg_pv.gdpFISDebt stock and compositionvulnerability%COUNTRYWB_WDI DT.DOD.PVLX.GN.ZS
Present value of public external debt, share of exportsIND.FIS.debt.external_ppg_pv.exportsFISDebt stock and compositionvulnerability%COUNTRYWB_WDI DT.DOD.PVLX.EX.ZS
Public gross financing needs, share of GDPIND.FIS.financing.gross_financing_needs.gdpFISGross financing needsvulnerability%COUNTRY
Public external debt service, share of revenueIND.FIS.financing.external_ppg_debt_service.revenueFISGross financing needsvulnerability%COUNTRY
Public external debt service, share of exportsIND.FIS.financing.external_ppg_debt_service.exportsFISGross financing needsvulnerability%COUNTRYWB_WDI DT.TDS.DPPG.XP.ZS SDG 17.4.1
Sovereign bond spread over benchmarkIND.FIS.financing.sovereign_spreadFISGross financing needsvulnerability%COUNTRY
Five-year sovereign credit default swap spreadIND.FIS.financing.sovereign_cds_5yFISGross financing needsvulnerability%COUNTRY
Debt of non-financial public corporations, share of GDPIND.FIS.contingent.soe_debt.gdpFISContingent liabilitiesvulnerability%COUNTRY
Outstanding government guarantees, share of GDPIND.FIS.contingent.guarantees.gdpFISContingent liabilitiesvulnerability%COUNTRY
Expected annual fiscal cost of disasters, share of GDPIND.FIS.contingent.disaster_fiscal_cost.gdpFISContingent liabilitiesvulnerability%COUNTRY
LIC-DSF composite indicator score (published, reference)IND.FIS.capacity.lic_dsf_composite_indicatorFISDebt-carrying capacitycoping capacity{score}COUNTRY
LIC-DSF threshold: PV of external debt to GDP (reference)IND.FIS.capacity.lic_dsf_threshold.pv_ext_gdpFISDebt-carrying capacitycontext%COUNTRY
LIC-DSF threshold: PV of external debt to exports (reference)IND.FIS.capacity.lic_dsf_threshold.pv_ext_exportsFISDebt-carrying capacitycontext%COUNTRY
LIC-DSF threshold: external debt service to exports (reference)IND.FIS.capacity.lic_dsf_threshold.ds_ext_exportsFISDebt-carrying capacitycontext%COUNTRY
LIC-DSF threshold: external debt service to revenue (reference)IND.FIS.capacity.lic_dsf_threshold.ds_ext_revenueFISDebt-carrying capacitycontext%COUNTRY
LIC-DSF benchmark: PV of total public debt to GDP (reference)IND.FIS.capacity.lic_dsf_threshold.pv_public_gdpFISDebt-carrying capacitycontext%COUNTRY
LIC-DSF risk of debt distress, as published (reference)IND.FIS.capacity.lic_dsf_risk_publishedFISDebt-carrying capacitycontext{class}COUNTRY
SRDSF overall risk of sovereign stress, as published (reference)IND.FIS.capacity.srdsf_risk_publishedFISDebt-carrying capacitycontext{class}COUNTRY
07Quote

Fiscal and public debt risk index, world

The world reading of this index, every country as a tile and the largest movements since the previous edition.

NXS-GRX · FIS · 195 profiles · 0–10 scale
Fiscal and public debt risk index, world
—
Values publish with the edition; the interval, class and change appear here.
Previous edition
—
Range since 2016
—
Coupled composite
—
Coupling score S
—
Pulse, latest week
—
Outlook, 12 months
—
Method
Indicator Standard 1.0 · NXS-GRX 2026
Draws
1,000
Fiscal and public debt risk index, world, by edition

No released values yet. The first edition draws the history here with its interval band and class bounds.

The line is the point value by edition; the band is the 90% interval; dashed lines are the class bounds at 2, 3.5, 5 and 6.5.
No movements yet. Changes since the previous edition are listed here from the second edition on, with the indicators that drove them.
08Values

Country values

FIG 5 · Fiscal and public debt risk index: countries (values when released)
Loading the map
AndorraAntigua and BarbudaBahrainBarbadosComorosCabo VerdeDominicaMicronesia (Federated States of)GrenadaKiribatiSaint Kitts and NevisSaint LuciaLiechtensteinMonacoMaldivesMarshall IslandsMaltaMauritiusNauruPalauSingaporeSan MarinoSao Tome and PrincipeSeychellesTongaTuvaluHoly SeeSaint Vincent and the GrenadinesSamoa
Equal Earth · Natural Earth 1:110mValues when released
Until the first edition is released the map shows UN M49 regions or the Nexus Reports edition; it then shows this index's classes with each country's interval on hover. Countries are listed by name, never ordered by value.
Tiles
/api/v1/public/grix/risk-products/tiles/fis/{z}/{x}/{y}.mvt
Observation key
nis:IDX.FIS.debt.fiscal_risk:{ISO3}:{YEAR}:A
10Validity

Crosswalks and validity checks

Crosswalks map leaf indicators to source code lists; established indices are used for validity checks, never re-weighted as inputs.

Code systemLeaf indicators mapped
WB_WDI12
IMF_WEO6
SDG2
11Across the Nexus

Platforms, standards and ways to take part

Field and service platforms of GCRI, GRF and GRA, the Nexus Risk Standards for this domain, learning, working groups and open calls. Every link is a live page.

12Cite

Cite and reuse

GCRI Canada (2026). The Global Risks Index (NXS-GRX): Fiscal and public debt risk index (GRX-IDX-FIS), Baseline Edition 2026. Preparatory working draft. https://risksindex.com/indices/fiscal-risk/ UNI NXS-GRX-AR-000122.

See this index in every country profile

Each profile shows this index with its interval and class once released.