What the Data Shows
Major nominal fiscal surpluses are compared using 2024 country-level government net lending and GDP current US$ values. The rows combine each country’s World Bank net-lending rate with its 2024 GDP current-US$ denominator where both rows are available. Norway leads at about US$68 billion, roughly twice Russia’s about US$34 billion surplus. The values combine two common indicators, so the page is framed as a constructed comparison rather than a single directly published nominal-surplus ranking.
Data table
| Rank | Entry | Value |
|---|
| 1 | Norway | US$68B |
| 2 | Russia | US$34B |
| 3 | Ireland | US$27B |
| 4 | Singapore | US$20B |
| 5 | Denmark | US$18B |
Sources
Source 1: World Bank World Development Indicators
Publisher: World Bank / International Monetary Fund
Dataset/table: World Development Indicators
Units: percent of GDP
Date checked: 2026-05-22
Evidence: Supports 2024 general-government net lending or borrowing rates as a share of GDP.
Source 2: World Bank World Development Indicators
Publisher: World Bank
Dataset/table: World Development Indicators
Units: current US dollars
Date checked: 2026-05-22
Evidence: Supports the 2024 GDP current-dollar denominators used to express nominal amounts.
Data notes & caveats
Net lending/net borrowing equals revenue minus expense minus net investment in nonfinancial assets. Country coverage follows available World Bank 2024 rows with both a net-lending rate and GDP current-US$ value; values are rounded.
Methodology
For each included country, the 2024 World Bank net-lending/net-borrowing percentage is multiplied by 2024 GDP current US$ and positive results are ranked by nominal size.
Source consistency notes
Both the net-lending rate and GDP denominator are World Bank indicators, with the fiscal balance sourced from IMF Government Finance Statistics through World Bank.
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