The International Monetary Fund (IMF) puts United Kingdom general government gross debt for 2025 at 102.3% of gross domestic product in Table A8 of the statistical appendix to its April 2026 World Economic Outlook (WEO)1. Gross domestic product means the value of everything the economy produces in a year, so the ratio expresses the debt as a multiple of annual national output. Last month five separate IMF addresses failed to load for this desk, and the panel published an empty cell rather than a number that did not belong in it.
On that same April 2026 vintage, Japan stands at 204.4% of GDP, Italy at 138.4%, the United States at 125.8%, France at 118.4%, Canada at 110.7% and Germany at 64.6%2. Britain sits above Germany and below the other five. All seven figures come from one table on one definition, which is the only reason they can be compared.
The 102.3% is not the 94.9% the Office for National Statistics published for end-June, and neither figure corrects the other. Public sector net debt covers the whole public sector, councils and public corporations included, and nets off the liquid assets the state holds. The IMF measure covers central and local government, counts what they owe gross, and refers to a different year.
Dropping the ONS number into the international row would set Britain's net debt against everyone else's gross debt, and would flatter the country for no reason other than a definitional mismatch. That kind of substitution is common in public argument and it is the specific error this panel exists to avoid.
