BoC–BoE Sovereign Default Database: What’s new in 2026?

Since 2014, the Bank of Canada (BoC) has maintained a comprehensive database of sovereign defaults to systematically measure and aggregate the nominal value of the different types of sovereign government debt in default. The database draws on published datasets compiled by various public and private sector sources. It combines elements of these sources with new information to develop comprehensive estimates of stocks of government obligations in default. These include bonds and other marketable securities, as well as bank loans and official loans, valued in US dollars, for the years 1960 to 2025, on both a country-by-country and a global basis. We consider debt to be in distress—and effectively in default—when an interruption in scheduled debt service occurs, a sovereign seeks to renegotiate the existing contract terms of any of its obligations or a combination of both. Such restructurings can include writing down the principal, reducing the interest rate or extending maturities. Typically, they also involve creditors suffering a loss in net present value. Once restructured, the debt is reclassified as performing and no longer considered to be in default. Official creditors include the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, other multilateral development banks, Paris Club creditors, non-Paris Club G20 creditors (notably China, India and South Africa) and other government development agencies. Private creditors are external bondholders, banks and suppliers. The database is posted on the BoC’s website and is updated annually in partnership with the Bank of England (BoE). Regular updates of the BoC–BoE database are useful to researchers analyzing the economic and financial effects of individual sovereign defaults and, importantly, the impacts on global financial stability from episodes involving multiple sovereign defaults. In this paper, we: highlight developments in sovereign debt defaults in 2025, including details on the estimated 14% decrease in the US-dollar value of sovereign debt in default from 2024 levels update key insights regarding the number, size and types of defaults give a historical overview of debt defaults and their persistence in heavily indebted, low-income sovereigns examine the shift in bilateral official sovereign lending from Paris Club lenders toward China1 update our estimates of stocks of domestic arrears, valued in US dollars The 2026 edition of the database, as well as related research, contains several enhancements, including: revisions to country and aggregate default data for 1960 to 2025, which include: new data on domestic arrears by country and globally, most comprehensively for the years 1990 to 2025 an illustration (Figure 1) showing debt in default across different regions a figure showing the proportion of sovereign debt in default and debt as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) by country updates to documents containing the methodology, appendix and references