List of sovereign debt crises

The list of sovereign debt crises involves the inability of independent countries to meet its liabilities, as they become due. These include:

• a sovereign default, where a government suspends debt repayments;
• a debt restructuring plan, where the government agrees with other countries, or unilaterally reduces its debt repayments;
• requiring assistance from the International Monetary Fund or another international source.

Debts could be owed either to private parties within a country, to foreign investors, or to other countries.

The following table includes actual sovereign defaults and debt restructuring of independent countries since 1557.

Africa

Country	Date	Type, causes, consequences and references
Angola	1976
	1992–2002
Cameroon	2004
Egypt	1876	The crisis caused the Urabi revolt and the subsequent British invasion of Egypt in 1882.
Gabon	1999–2005
Ghana	1982
	2022
Liberia	1989–2006
Madagascar	2002
Mozambique	1980
Rwanda	1995
Sierra Leone	1997–98
Sudan	1991
Tunisia	1986
Zaire	1979
Zambia	2020	Default due to high debt levels, following the COVID-19 pandemic and commodity price drops. Followed by the IMF bailout, in 2022.
Zimbabwe	2006	See Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe

Asia

Country	Date	Type, causes, consequences and references
China	1921
	1932
	1939
Indonesia	1966
Japan	1946–52	Due to an over-issued national bond amounting to more than twice as GDP, bank accounts were blocked. (bank blockade)
Kuwait	1990–91
Lebanon	2020	Lebanon defaulted on US$1.2 billion in Eurobonds.
Myanmar	1984
	1987
Mongolia	1997–2000
North Korea	1975–1990
Sri Lanka	2022	Sri Lankan economic crisis (2019–2024)
Thailand	1997–2007	1997 Asian financial crisis
Vietnam	1975

Europe

Country	Date	Type, causes, consequences and references
Austria	1811
	1816	Caused by the War of the Sixth Coalition. Ended by the establishment of Austria's central bank: Oesterreichische Nationalbank.
	1945
Croatia	1993–96
Cyprus	2012-2013	2012–2013 Cypriot financial crisis
Denmark	1813	Danish state bankruptcy of 1813
France	1788	On 17 August 1788, the royal treasury began paying creditors in IOUs rather than money, after service on debt (mainly from the Seven Years' War and American War of Independence) had depleted the royal treasury to just 400,000 livres (one day's worth of state expenses). To restore state credit, the royal ministry called the Estates General of 1789 to make structural reforms to state revenue.
	1797	Deflation, after the withdrawal of the assignat and mandat territorial led Finance Minister Dominique-Vincent Ramel-Nogaret to repudiate of 2/3 of French state debt.
Germany	1812	State spending during the Napoleonic Wars was extremely high, due, in large manner, to the high level of military expenditures.
	1932	Under the Versailles Treaty ending the First World War, Germany was forced to make war reparations. The Young Plan of 1929 was meant to settle the structure, but in the Great Depression repayments became impossible. In the Lausanne Conference of 1932, the U.K. and France agreed to a suspension of payments. The U.S. Congress rejected it, but payments ceased, until the implementation of the London Agreement on German External Debts in 1953.
	1948	See London Agreement on German External Debts
Greece	2012
	2015	Due to the Greek government-debt crisis, Greece failed to make a €1.6 billion payment to the IMF on time (payment was made with a 20-day delay).
Russia	1918	Repudiation of Tsarist debts by Bolshevik revolutionaries.
	1998	After world commodity prices dropped on major Russian exports (particularly metals and oil), the 1998 Russian financial crisis ensued. Mounting debts led to the government declaring a moratorium on payments to international creditors.
	2022	2022 Russian debt default
Spain	1936–39
Sweden	1812	Military expenditures as a consequence of the Napoleonic Wars.
Ukraine	1998–2000
Yugoslavia	1983	Avoided default through a multinational emergency loan.

North America

Country	Date	Type, causes, consequences and references
Antigua and Barbuda	1998–2005
Barbados	2018	Defaulted on its Eurobonds, after the uncovering of its high sovereign debt in terms of debt-to-GDP ratio.
Dominica	2003–05
Dominican Republic	1975–2001	Latin American debt crisis
El Salvador	1981–96
Grenada	2004–05
Mexico	1850
	1982	Latin American debt crisis
Panama	1988–89
United States	1790	Crisis began in 1782. Ended by the Compromise of 1790 and the Funding Act of 1790.
	1814	Late interest payments, due to the War of 1812
	1875	US devalued the USD (Specie Payment Resumption Act)
	1865	The Confederate States of America lost the American civil war and ceased to exist, thus defaulting on their debts. The United States passed the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1868, which prohibited assumption of the debts.
	1933	Suspension of federal payments in gold, amid a bank crisis and international run on gold reserves.
	1953	Congress refuses to raise the United States debt ceiling, forcing the federal government to reduce spending, monetize gold and use cash balances with banks, until the ceiling was eventually raised.
	1995-96	Congress fails to reach agreement with President Clinton on the budget, resulting in the United States federal government shutdowns of 1995–1996; Republicans also threaten not to raise the debt ceiling.
	2011	2011 U.S. debt-ceiling crisis
	2013	2013 U.S. debt-ceiling crisis
	2023	2023 U.S. debt-ceiling crisis

South America

Country	Date	Type, causes, consequences and references
Argentina	1827	Default
	1890	Baring crisis
	1982	Latin American debt crisis
	1988–89
	2001	Following years of instability, the Argentine economic crisis (1999–2002) came to a head and a new government announced it could not meet its public debt obligations.
	2005–16	Argentine debt restructuring.
	2014
	2020
Bolivia	1927
Brazil	1986–87
	1990
Ecuador	2020
Paraguay	1874	The payment of loans taken in the English market between 1871-72 was stopped, due to bad economic conditions.
	1920	The payment of foreign loans was once again suspended, due to adverse economic and political conditions.
Peru	1850
Suriname	2001–02
	2020
Uruguay	1937
Venezuela	1995–97
	1998
	2017	Venezuela defaulted on US$65 billion in external debt in November 2017, after years of unsustainable borrowing and a crash in global oil prices.

Oceania

Country	Date	Type, causes, consequences and references
Australia	1931	Australia defaulted on its entire stock of domestic debt owed to bond and note holders. See: Great Depression in Australia.
Solomon Islands	1995–2004	Default on domestic debt, not external debt.

See also

• List of corporate collapses and scandals
• List of stock market crashes and bear markets
• List of largest bank failures in the United States
• Currency crisis
• Government debt
• War reparations
• Global settlement
• London Club
• Paris Club

Further reading

• Reinhart, Carmen M.; Rogoff, Kenneth S. (2009). This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. Princeton University Press. pp. 23, 87, 91, 95, 96. ISBN 978-0-691-14216-6.