Global Development Finance is a two-volume annual report from the World Bank. The first volume, usually titled “Analysis and Statistical Appendix” is available online from the World Bank web site, free for anyone to read.
The second volume, “Summary and Country Tables” contains country data in time series back to 1970. The Carleton library subscribes to this part of Global Development Finance in an online database format, which must be accessed either from a computer on campus, or via the proxy server when off campus.
GDF Online contains data on the external debt of 135 countries that report public and publicly guaranteed debt under the Debtor Reporting System (DRS).
Example variables: debt outstanding, debt service, disbursements, foreign direct investment, short-term debt as a percentage of total debt, total debt as a percentage of GNP, net flows, net transfers, undisbursed debt, deb buyback, debt forgiveness, debt stocks, and use of IMF credit.
Documentation: The main trouble new users of the GDF can expect is to understand what all the data series mean. Definitions of the data series can be found on the World Bank web site along with methodology, sources, abbreviations and other metadata.
Contact Kristin if you have any questions about using this new data source from the library.