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.[1]

Africa

Country	Date	Type, causes, consequences, and references
Algeria	1991
Angola	1976	[2]
	1985
	1992–2002	[2]
Cameroon	2004	[2]
Central African Republic	1981
Central African Republic	1983
Côte d'Ivoire	1983
	2000
	2011
Egypt	1876	The crisis caused the ʻUrabi revolt and the subsequent British invasion of Egypt.
Egypt	1984
Gabon	1999–2005	[2]
Ghana	1979
	1982	[2]
	2022	[3]
Liberia	1989–2006	[2]
Kenya	1994
Kenya	2000
Madagascar	2002	[2]
Morocco	1983
	1994
	2000
Mozambique	1980	[2]
Nigeria	1982
	1986
	1992
	2001
	2004
Rhodesia	1965
Rwanda	1995	[2]
Sierra Leone	1997–98	[2]
South Africa	1985
	1989
	1993
Sudan	1991	[2]
Tunisia	1867
Tunisia	1986	[4]
Zaire	1979	[2]
Zambia	1983
Zambia	2020	Default due to high debt levels following pandemic and commodity price drops. Followed by IMF bailout, 2022. [5]
Zimbabwe	2000
Zimbabwe	2006	See Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe[2]

Asia

Country	Date	Type, causes, consequences, and references
China	1921	[2]
	1932	[2]
	1939	[2]
Indonesia	1966	[6]
Iran	1990
Iran	1992
Japan	1942
Japan	1946–52	Due to an over-issued national bond amounting to more than twice as GDP, bank accounts were blocked (bank blockade) [2]
Jordan	1989
Kuwait	1990–91	[2]
Lebanon	2020	Lebanon defaulted on US$1.2 billion in Eurobonds.[7]
Myanmar	1984	[2]
	1987	[2]
	2002
Mongolia	1997–2000	[2]
North Korea	1975–1990	[8]
Ottoman Empire	1876
Ottoman Empire	1915
The Philippines	1983
Sri Lanka	2022	2019–present Sri Lankan economic crisis[9][10]
Thailand	1997–2007	1997 Asian financial crisis.
Turkey	1931
	1940
	1978
	1982
Vietnam	1975	[2]

Europe

Country	Date	Type, causes, consequences, and references
Albania	1990
Archduchy of Austria	1796
Archduchy of Austria	1802
Austrian Empire	1811	[11]
	1816	Caused by the War of the Sixth Coalition. Ended by the establishment of Austria's central bank Oesterreichische Nationalbank.[11]
	1868
Austria	1945	[2]
Bulgaria	1932
Bulgaria	1990
Croatia	1993–96	[2]
Denmark	1813	Danish state bankruptcy of 1813.[2]
Kingdom of 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.[12]
France	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.[13]
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 UK and France agreed to a suspension of payments. The US Congress rejected it, but payments ceased until the implementation of the London Agreement on German External Debts in 1953.
	1939
	1948	See London Agreement on German External Debts[2]
Hesse	1814
Prussia	1807
Prussia	1813
Schleswig-Holstein	1850
Westphalia	1812
Greece	1843
	1860
	1893
	1932
	2012	[14]
	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[15][16]).
Hungary	1932
Hungary	1941
Poland	1936
Poland	1981
Netherlands	1814	Instability resulting from the rule of Napoleon I in France
Portugal	1828
	1837
	1841
	1845
	1852
	1890
	2011
Romania	1933
Russia	1839
	1885
	1918	Repudiation of Tsarist debts by Bolshevik revolutionaries.[17]
	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[18]
Soviet Union	1947	[2]
Soviet Union	1957	[2]
Spain	1557	[19]
	1575	[19]
	1596	[19]
	1607	[19]
	1627	[19]
	1647	[19]
	1652	[19]
	1662	[19]
	1666	[19]
	1809
	1820
	1831
	1834
	1851
	1867
	1872
	1882
	1936–39	[2]
Sweden	1812	Military expenditures as a consequence of the Napoleonic Wars.
Ukraine	1998–2000	[2]
Yugoslavia	1983	Avoided default through a multinational emergency loan.

North America

Country	Date	Type, causes, consequences, and references
Antigua and Barbuda	1998–2005	[2]
Barbados	2018	Defaulted on its Eurobonds after the uncovering of its high sovereign debt in terms of debt-to-GDP ratio.[20]
Costa Rica	1828
	1874
	1895
	1901
	1932
	1962
	1981	Latin American debt crisis
	1983	Latin American debt crisis
	1984	Latin American debt crisis
Dominica	2003–05	[2]
Dominican Republic	1872
	1892
	1897
	1899
	1931
	1975–2001	Latin American debt crisis[2]
	2005
El Salvador	1828
	1876
	1894
	1899
	1921
	1932
	1938
	1981–96	[2]
Grenada	2004–05	[2]
Guatemala	1933
	1986
	1989	Latin American debt crisis
Guyana	1982
Honduras	1828
	1873
	1981	Latin American debt crisis
Jamaica	1978
Mexico	1827
	1833
	1844
	1850	[2]
	1866
	1898
	1914
	1928–30s
	1982	Latin American debt crisis
Nicaragua	1828
	1894
	1911
	1915
	1932
	1979
Panama	1932
	1983	Latin American debt crisis
	1987	Latin American debt crisis
	1988–89	[2]
Trinidad and Tobago	1989
United States	1790	Crisis began in 1782. Ended by the Compromise of 1790 and the Funding Act of 1790.[21][22]
	1933	Suspension of federal payments in gold amid a bank crisis and international run on gold reserves[23][2]
	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 United States debt-ceiling crisis
	2013	2013 United States debt-ceiling crisis
	2023	2023 United States debt-ceiling crisis

South America

Country	Date	Type, causes, consequences, and references
Argentina	1827	Default.[24]
	1890	Baring crisis[24]
	1982	Latin American debt crisis[24]
	1988–89	Latin American debt crisis[24]
	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.[24]
	2005–16	Argentine debt restructuring.
	2014	[25][26]
	2020	[27]
Bolivia	1875
	1927	[2]
	1931
	1980	Latin American debt crisis
	1986	Latin American debt crisis
	1989	Latin American debt crisis
Brazil	1898
	1902
	1914
	1931
	1937
	1961
	1964
	1983	Latin American debt crisis
	1986–87	[2]
	1990	[2]
Chile	1826
	1880
	1931
	1961
	1963
	1966
	1972
	1974
	1983	Latin American debt crisis
Colombia	1826
	1850
	1873
	1880
	1900
	1932
	1935
Ecuador	1826
	1868
	1894
	1906
	1909
	1914
	1929
	1982
	1984
	2000
	2008
	2020	[28][29]
Paraguay	1874	The payment of loans taken in the English market between 1871-72 was stopped due to bad economic conditions[30]
	1892
	1920	The payment of foreign loans was once again suspended due to adverse economic and political conditions[31]
	1932
	1986	Latin American debt crisis
	2003
Peru	1826
	1850	[2]
	1876
	1931
	1969
	1976
	1978
	1980	Latin American debt crisis
	1984	Latin American debt crisis
Suriname	2001–02	[2]
Uruguay	1876
	1891
	1915
	1933
	1937	[2]
	1983	Latin American debt crisis
	1987	Latin American debt crisis
	1990
Venezuela	1826
	1848
	1860
	1865
	1892
	1898
	1982	Latin American debt crisis
	1990
	1995–97	[2]
	1998	[2]
	2004
	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.[32]

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	[2]

References

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.
Reinhart, Carmen M.; Rogoff, Kenneth S. (2011). "The Forgotten History of Domestic Debt" (PDF). Economic Journal. 121 (552): 319–350 [pp. 343ff]. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0297.2011.02426.x. JSTOR 41236982. S2CID 154398807.
Akorlie, Christian; Inveen, Cooper (20 December 2022). "Ghana to default on most external debt as economic crisis worsens". Reuters. Reuters.
MZ Bechri. "The Political Economy of Development Policy in Tunisia" (PDF). The University of Tunisia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
"Zambia to default on foreign debt, finance minister says". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
Arndt1, H. W; Panglaykim, J (1966). "Indonesian economic problems in 1966" (PDF). Intereconomics. 01 (9): 22. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-03-20 – via EconStor.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Azhari, Timour. "Lebanon will default on its debt for the first time ever". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
Marcus, Noland (2000). Avoiding the Apocalypse: The Future of the Two Koreas. p. 95.
"Sri Lanka Announces Defaulting On All Its External Debt". NDTV.
"Sri Lanka economic crisis live updates: Sri Lanka defaults on entire $51 billion external debt". Times of India. 20 July 2022.
Kann, Robert A. (1980). A History of the Habsburg Empire, 1526-1918. Campus of the University of California: University of California Press (published November 26, 1980). p. 241. ISBN 0520042069.
Duncan, Mike (7 September 2014). "3.8 The Day of the Tiles". Revolutions (Podcast). Retrieved 2 May 2022.
Duncan, Mike (16 August 2015). "3.47 The Directorial Terror". Revolutions (Podcast). Retrieved 16 May 2022.
Zettelmeyer, Jeromin; Trebesch, Christoph; Gulati, Mitu (July 2013). The Greek Debt Restructuring - An Autopsy.
"IMF: Greece makes overdue payments, no longer in default". eKathimerini. 20 July 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
"IMF: Greece makes overdue payments, no longer in default". EUBusiness. 20 July 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
Kim Oosterlinck. Hope Springs Eternal: French Bondholders and the Repudiation of Russian Sovereign debt Yale University Press. 2016
Силуанов: Запад заморозил примерно половину золотовалютных резервов России. Business Gazetta (in Russian). 2022-03-13.
Fernández-Renau Atienza, Daniel; Howden, David (21 January 2016), Three Centuries of Boom-Bust in Spain, Mises Institute
"Barbados announced a technical default on coupon of Eurobonds with maturity in 2035". www.cbonds.com. Retrieved 2018-06-10.
Chamberlain, John S. (2011-07-14). "A Short History of US Credit Defaults". Mises Institute. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
Kratz, Jessie (2015-05-31). "The Compromise of 1790". Pieces of History. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
Edwards, Sebastian (2018). American Default.
Boggiano, Miguel Ángel. "Historia del Default en Argentina". Carta Financiera. Archived from the original on 2016-12-20. Retrieved 2017-11-11.
Russo, Camila (2014-07-31). "Argentina Declared in Default by S&P as Talks Fail". Bloomberg.
D&Apos, Andres (2014-07-31). "Argentina defaults on international debt, blames U.S". Los Angeles Times.
"Argentina strikes deal with major creditors to restructure $65 billion in debt". CNN. 2020-08-04.
Vizcaino, Maria (2 August 2021). "Ecuador Defaulted Last Year. Now Its Bonds Are World's Bes". Bloomberg.
Rapoza, Kenneth (Apr 21, 2020). "The Pandemic Blues: Ecuador Second Latin American Nation To Default In 4 Weeks". Forbes.
Prado, Mario L. F. (2022), O Processo de Recuperação Econômica do Paraguai após a Guerra da Tríplice Aliança (1870-1890), University of São Paulo, São Paulo, p. 86
Ashwell, Washington (1989). Historia Económica del Paraguay. p. 357-382.
"Venezuela Defaults, What Now?". Forbes. 2017-11-14.

Financial crises
Bank run Commodity price shocks Credit crunch Credit cycle Currency crisis Debt crisis Energy crisis Financial contagion Social contagion Flash crash Hyperinflation Liquidity crisis Accounting Capital Funding Market Minsky moment Social crisis Stock market crash
Pre-1000	Crisis of the Third Century (235–284 CE)
Commercial Revolution (1000–1760)	Great Bullion Famine (c. 1400–c. 1500) The Great Debasement (1544–1551) Dutch Republic stock market crashes (c. 1600–1760) Kipper und Wipper (1621–1623) Tulip mania crash (1637) South Sea bubble crash (1720) Mississippi bubble crash (1720)
1st Industrial Revolution (1760–1840)	Amsterdam banking crisis of 1763 Bengal bubble crash (1769–1784) British credit crisis of 1772–1773 Dutch Republic financial collapse (c. 1780–1795) Panic of 1785 Copper Panic of 1789 Panic of 1792 Panic of 1796–1797 Danish state bankruptcy of 1813 Post-Napoleonic Irish grain price and land use shocks (1815–1816) Panic of 1819 Panic of 1825 Panic of 1837
1840–1870	European Potato Failure (1845–1856) Great Irish Famine Highland Potato Famine Panic of 1847 Panic of 1857 Panic of 1866 Black Friday (1869)
2nd Industrial Revolution (1870–1914)	Panic of 1873 Paris Bourse crash of 1882 Panic of 1884 Arendal crash (1886) Baring crisis (1890) Encilhamento (1890–1893) Panic of 1893 Australian banking crisis of 1893 Black Monday (1894) Panic of 1896 Panic of 1901 Panic of 1907 Shanghai rubber stock market crisis (1910) Panic of 1910–1911 Financial crisis of 1914
Interwar period (1918–1939)	Early Soviet hyperinflation (1917–1924) Weimar Republic hyperinflation (1921–1923) Shōwa financial crisis (1927) Wall Street Crash of 1929 Panic of 1930
Post–WWII expansion (1945–1973)	Kennedy Slide of 1962 1963–1965 Indonesian hyperinflation
Great Inflation (1973–1982)	1970s energy crisis (1973–1980) 1973 oil crisis 1973–1974 stock market crash Secondary banking crisis of 1973–1975 Steel crisis (1973–1982) Latin American debt crisis (1975–1982) 1976 British currency crisis 1979 oil crisis Brazilian hyperinflation (1980–1982)
Great Moderation/ Great Regression (1982–2007)	Brazilian hyperinflation (1982–1994) Souk Al-Manakh stock market crash (1982) Chilean crisis of 1982 1983 Israel bank stock crisis Black Saturday (1983) Savings and loan crisis (1986–1995) Black Monday (1987) 1988–1992 Norwegian banking crisis Japanese asset price bubble crash (1990–1992) Rhode Island banking crisis (1990–1992) 1991 Indian economic crisis 1990s Swedish financial crisis 1990s Finnish banking crisis 1990s Armenian energy crisis Cuban Special Period (1991–2000) Black Wednesday (1992 Sterling crisis) Yugoslav hyperinflation (1992–1994) 1994 bond market crisis Venezuelan banking crisis of 1994 Mexican peso crisis (1994–1996) 1997 Asian financial crisis October 1997 mini-crash 1998 Russian financial crisis 1998–1999 Ecuador economic crisis 1998–2002 Argentine great depression Samba effect (1999) Dot-com bubble crash (2000–2004) 9/11 stock market crash (2001) 2001 Turkish economic crisis South American economic crisis of 2002 Stock market downturn of 2002 2002 Uruguay banking crisis 2003 Myanmar banking crisis 2000s energy crisis (2003–2008) 2004 Argentine energy crisis 2007 Chinese stock bubble crash Zimbabwean hyperinflation (2007–present)
Great Recession (2007–2009)	2007–2008 financial crisis September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 2009 Subprime mortgage crisis 2000s U.S. housing market correction U.S. bear market of 2007–2009 2008 Latvian financial crisis 2008–2009 Belgian financial crisis 2008–2009 Russian financial crisis 2008–2009 Ukrainian financial crisis 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis 2008–2011 Irish banking crisis 2008–2014 Spanish financial crisis Blue Monday Crash 2009 European debt crisis Greek government-debt crisis
Digital Revolution (2009–present)	2009 Dubai debt standstill Venezuelan banking crisis of 2009–2010 2010–2014 Portuguese financial crisis Energy crisis in Venezuela (2010–present) Syrian economic crisis (2011–present) August 2011 stock markets fall 2011 Bangladesh share market scam 2012–2013 Cypriot financial crisis 2013 Chinese banking liquidity crisis Venezuela economic crisis (2013–present) 2014–2016 Brazilian economic crisis Puerto Rican government-debt crisis (2014–2022) Russian financial crisis (2014–2016) 2015 Nepal blockade 2015–2016 Chinese stock market turbulence 2015–2016 stock market selloff Brexit stock market crash (2016) Venezuelan hyperinflation (2016–2022) 2017 Sri Lankan fuel crisis Ghana banking crisis (2017–2018) Turkish economic crisis (2018–present) Lebanese liquidity crisis (2019–present) Sri Lankan economic crisis (2019–present) COVID-19 pandemic Financial market impact 2020 stock market crash Recession Chinese property sector crisis (2020–present) 2021–2023 inflation 2022 Russian financial crisis 2022 stock market decline 2023 United States banking crisis
List of banking crises List of economic crises List of sovereign debt crises List of stock market crashes and bear markets