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Argentina has accumulated about 41.8 billion SDR in debt to the IMF, equivalent to almost US$60 billion, which alone represents 35% of the fund’s total outstanding credit worldwide. The country owes four times more than war-torn Ukraine and almost six times more than Egypt. On the other side of the border, Brazil paid off its debt to the IMF in 2005 and today maintains international reserves above US$350 billion.
Argentina comfortably leads the ranking of the largest debtors to the IMF, and the gap to the second place is so large that the South American country owes more than several of the next on the list combined. Data updated by the fund itself this Monday (27) show that Argentina’s debt reaches 41.8 billion SDR (Special Drawing Rights, the institution’s reference currency), equivalent to something between US$57 billion and US$60 billion. The total global outstanding credit from the IMF is around 120.7 billion SDR, which means that Argentina alone accounts for almost 35% of everything that all the countries in the world still owe the fund.
The contrast with Brazil is stark. While Argentina tops the ranking with a debt that surpasses that of nations at war, Brazil does not even appear on the list. The country paid off practically all its debt to the IMF in 2005, during the first Lula administration, when it prepaid about US$15 billion and ended a historic cycle of dependence on the fund. Since then, it has accumulated robust international reserves, generally above US$350 billion, and has not needed to resort to the lender of last resort again.
The complete ranking of the IMF’s largest debtors
According to information released by the portal ndmais, after Argentina, the largest debtors to the IMF are countries facing wars, currency crises, or severe difficulties in paying their external bills. Ukraine appears in second place with 10.7 billion SDR, followed by Egypt with 7.4 billion, Pakistan with 7.2 billion, and Ecuador with 7.2 billion. Following them are Ivory Coast, Angola, Bangladesh, Ghana, and Kenya.
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The comparison highlights the Argentine anomaly. The country owes almost four times more than Ukraine, a nation that has been at war since 2022 and turned to the IMF precisely to finance its economic survival during the conflict. It owes almost six times more than Egypt, which faces a chronic currency crisis. The concentration of 35% of the fund’s entire global debt in a single country is unparalleled in the institution’s recent history.
Why Argentina owes so much to the IMF and how it got to this point
Argentina’s relationship with the IMF is old and turbulent. The country has signed more than 20 agreements with the fund since the 1950s and lives in a repeated cycle of economic crisis, high inflation, currency devaluation, and the need for new loans. Each crisis generates a rescue program that, when it fails, is replaced by an even larger program to refinance the previous debt.
The great leap happened in 2018, under the government of Mauricio Macri, when the IMF approved the largest loan in the institution’s history up to that point: US$57 billion. The program aimed to contain capital flight and stabilize the economy, but it got out of control. In 2022, a new agreement refinanced the old debt. In 2025, already under Javier Milei, Argentina closed another US$20 billion program, mainly to roll over previous installments and provide breathing room for fiscal adjustment. In practice, the country takes new money to pay old debt.
What it means to appear at the top of the IMF ranking
Being at the top of the IMF’s list of debtors is not the same as being the most indebted country in the world. Japan, the United States, Italy, and Brazil itself have gigantic public debts, but they are financed mainly in the domestic market, through the issuance of bonds and local banks. These countries do not need to resort to the fund because they can finance themselves with their own currency and their own investors.
The IMF acts as a lender of last resort, sought when a country faces a currency crisis, a shortage of dollars, a risk of external default, or a collapse in international reserves. Appearing very high on this ranking is a sign of economic fragility, not just high debt. Argentina is at the top because its economy has been unable, for decades, to generate the necessary dollars to pay its external obligations without repeatedly resorting to international bailouts.
How Brazil got off the list and why it won’t be back
Brazil paid off its debt to the IMF in 2005, when it prepaid about US$ 15 billion and ended the dependency that marked the 1990s and the early 2000s. Since then, the country has accumulated international reserves that are generally above US$ 350 billion, a cushion that allows it to face external crises without needing to knock on the fund‘s door.
Brazil’s fiscal problem exists, but it is concentrated in the domestic public debt, financed in reais and within its own national market. The difference between owing the IMF in dollars and owing the domestic market in its own currency is structural: in the first case, the country depends on generating dollars to pay; in the second, it has the Central Bank as the regulator of the currency in which the debt is denominated. This distinction explains why Brazil, even with a high fiscal deficit, does not appear in the IMF‘s ranking.
What the IMF ranking reveals about Argentina’s economy in 2026
Argentina‘s permanence at the top of the ranking under the Milei government shows that the fiscal adjustment promised by the libertarian president was not enough to change the dynamic of dependency on the fund. The US$ 20 billion program finalized in 2025 did not reduce the total debt: it only replaced old installments with new ones, keeping the country in the same relative position and ensuring that Argentina continues to account for more than a third of all IMF credit in the world.
For Argentinians, the debt to the fund has practical consequences. IMF programs are accompanied by conditionalities that include fiscal targets, inflation control, and structural reforms, and failure to meet these targets can lead to the suspension of disbursements. Argentina operates, in practice, with its economy partially managed by the fund‘s requirements, a situation that Brazil left behind two decades ago.
Did you know that Argentina owes more to the IMF than war-torn Ukraine, or did you think Brazil still had debt with the fund? Tell us in the comments what you think about the difference between the two neighbors and if you believe Argentina will be able to break out of this debt cycle.
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