Primary balance

The budget balance before interest on the debt, as a share of GDP.

The primary balance is the budget balance without the interest on the debt: what a government collects minus what it spends on everything else, as a share of GDP. It shows whether a government lives within its means today, apart from the cost of its old debt. A country with a primary surplus and a deficit overall borrows only to pay interest. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) publishes it in its Fiscal Monitor. We show past years only and leave out the IMF's forecasts.

• Economy
• Public finance
• Budget deficit
• IMF
• Country
• Year