Frequently asked questions
Short answers about financial repression and how this tracker measures it. Each links to the pages with the detail and the sources.
What is financial repression?
Financial repression is a set of government rules that steer savings into government debt or hold the return on savings below inflation. Typical tools are mandated holdings of government bonds, caps on interest rates, central bank purchases of government debt and limits on moving money abroad. Reinhart and Sbrancia’s IMF working paper “The Liquidation of Government Debt” is the standard reference for how these tools transfer resources from savers to governments.
What are historical examples of financial repression?
The best-known episode is the period after World War II, when governments with large war debts held interest rates down and kept savings at home. The toolkit’s “postwar playbook” tour follows five instruments from that era: US deposit-rate ceilings, the Federal Reserve’s peg of Treasury yields, war-bond savings drives, France’s Treasury deposit circuit and UK exchange control. Each stop cites the rule behind it, and Reinhart and Sbrancia find substantial liquidation of government debt in the postwar decades.
How does financial repression affect savers?
It lowers the real return savers earn, so part of their wealth quietly pays down government debt. When the interest on deposits and government bonds is held below inflation, the purchasing power of those savings falls each year. As illustrative arithmetic, a real rate of −2% on debt worth 100% of GDP moves about 2% of GDP a year from savers to the state.
Is financial repression happening now, and in which countries?
Yes: the tracker records 211 measures in force across the 16 jurisdictions it covers. The highest current index scores are Japan (64.9), India (60.6) and China (59.5), on a scale of 0 to 100. Scores partly reflect how many measures have been researched for each jurisdiction, so compare them with that in mind and read each country page for the detail.
How is the financial repression index calculated?
The index runs from 0 to 100: 80% comes from the rules a country has in force and 20% from two market figures. Each rule sits in one of nine weighted categories and has a severity from 1 to 3; further measures in a category add with diminishing returns, and a category never exceeds its weight. The market part averages the real policy rate and the share of government debt held by the country’s own central bank and banks; without market data, the index is the rules score alone.
What counts as a financial repression measure?
A measure is a law, regulation or official decision that steers savings into government debt or holds returns below inflation, in one of nine categories such as captive demand, rate caps or capital controls. Only measures in force count toward the index; the outlook also counts laws already enacted that apply from a later date. Proposed, under-discussion and repealed measures are shown but never scored.
How are the sources and legal citations verified?
562 of the 564 sources were opened and the measure’s figures checked against them; each measure has at least one opened source. Each measure also cites its legal basis with a short verbatim quote from the official text, 561 citations in all, checked by script on the page, by a separate reviewing agent, or by transcription from a scanned gazette. Citations that no one could open, or that a reviewer rejected, are not published.
How often is the data updated?
Market and economic indicators refresh automatically every Monday from their publishers. The measures themselves are researched and checked by hand; the current set is dated 2026-10-14. The map page lists recent and upcoming changes to the measures.
What is the difference between financial repression and inflation?
Inflation is a general rise in prices; financial repression is the set of rules that keep savers’ returns below it. Rate caps, mandated holdings of government bonds and limits on moving money abroad narrow the choices that would otherwise let savers keep pace with inflation. Reinhart and Sbrancia show how the two together reduced government debt after World War II.
Are capital controls the same as financial repression?
No: capital controls are one tool of financial repression, not the whole of it. They block the exits, so savers cannot move money abroad to escape low domestic returns; the other categories steer savings to the state or hold the return down. In the index, capital controls are one of nine categories.
How can I protect my savings from financial repression?
This site does not give investment, tax or legal advice. It documents rules and data so readers can understand them; for decisions about your own money, consult a qualified adviser in your jurisdiction.
Can I reuse the data?
Yes. The tracker’s own data (its measures, legal citations and index scores) is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0): reuse it freely, including commercially, as long as you credit the Financial Repression Tracker and link to the page you used. Indicator series remain under their publishers’ terms: for example, World Bank data is licensed CC BY 4.0, BIS data must cite the BIS, and IMF data needs permission for commercial reuse.
How do I report an error?
Send a message to @fin_repression on X or email contact@financialrepression.cc, naming the page and, if you can, the source that shows the correct figure. Corrections are checked against the official text before the page is changed.