Lao PDR’s recent statistics show an economy growing amid severe inflation and substantial public debt. The country had 7,769,819 people in 2024, while World Bank data put internet use at 66% of the population. The figures below distinguish measurement years, estimates, and indicators reported for different parts of the country’s economy and society.
Contents
- Economic growth and prices
- Government finance and debt
- Trade, payments, and reserves
- Population, poverty, and inequality
- Gender and labor indicators
- Education and health
Economic growth and prices
According to the IMF Country Report No. 24/319, Lao PDR’s real GDP growth was 3.7% in 2023 and 4.1% in 2024. These are real, inflation-adjusted growth rates, so they should not be confused with the change in the value of GDP at current prices.
Inflation remained the defining pressure on household purchasing power. Consumer prices rose by an average of 31.2% in 2023 and 22.0% in 2024. At the end of each year, consumer prices were up 24.4% in 2023 and 16.2% in 2024. The GDP deflator, a broader measure of price change across the domestic economy, increased by 24.1% in 2023 and 14.6% in 2024.
The World Bank’s Lao PDR country page reports that inflation topped 31% across 2023. That description is consistent with the IMF’s 31.2% annual average for the same year, but the two source labels and measures should be retained when comparing them.
| Indicator | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Real GDP growth | 3.7% | 4.1% |
| Average consumer-price increase | 31.2% | 22.0% |
| End-year consumer-price increase | 24.4% | 16.2% |
| GDP deflator increase | 24.1% | 14.6% |
Nominal GDP was 333,607 billion kip in 2024, and GDP per capita was 43.4 billion kip, according to the IMF report. These are nominal kip-denominated figures and are therefore not directly interchangeable with real growth rates or with a US-dollar income measure. The official exchange rate was 20,480 kip per US dollar at the end of 2023.
Government finance and debt
The IMF reported 2024 revenue and grants at 16.5% of GDP. Tax and nontax revenue accounted for 15.2% of GDP, while grants accounted for 1.3%. Total expenditure was 17.0% of GDP. Within that total, current expenditure was 10.9% of GDP, interest payments were 3.2%, and net acquisition of nonfinancial assets was 6.1%.
The overall fiscal balance was -0.5% of GDP in 2024. The primary balance, which excludes interest payments, was 2.7% of GDP. These two measures answer different questions: the overall balance includes interest costs, while the primary balance describes the position before those costs.
Public and publicly guaranteed debt was 108.3% of GDP in 2024 in the IMF figures. Domestic debt was 18.8% of GDP and external debt was 89.6% of GDP. The same IMF report separately lists external debt at 139.6% of GDP in 2024; because these labels differ, they should not be merged into one measure or treated as an arithmetic subtotal without the report’s definitions.
Public and publicly guaranteed external debt service was US$1,187.7 million in 2024. External debt service equaled 12.6% of exports of goods and services. The World Bank’s Lao PDR country page estimated public debt at about 88% of GDP in 2025. That is a later estimate and uses a different source and reporting period from the IMF’s 2024 debt measures.
The World Bank also reported deferred debt repayments worth about 16% of GDP by the end of 2023. This is a debt-related payment measure, not a replacement for the IMF’s debt-to-GDP figures.
Trade, payments, and reserves
The IMF recorded a current-account balance of 2.4% of GDP in 2024. The merchandise trade balance was 4.1% of GDP. Exports were 56.9% of GDP and imports were 52.8% of GDP. These trade flows are large relative to domestic output, and the balance is the difference between merchandise exports and imports rather than a complete measure of the current account.
Services net was 3.2% of GDP, including travel services at 2.9% of GDP. Net income was -7.1% of GDP, while interest payments in the current account were 4.9% of GDP. Net transfers were 2.2% of GDP, and direct-investment net inflows were 4.6% of GDP.
Gross official reserves were US$1,463.0 million in 2024 and covered 2.1 months of prospective imports. Reserve coverage is a forward-looking import measure, so it should be read separately from the dollar value of reserves.
Financial indicators also showed rapid expansion in 2024. Broad money grew by 30.7%, while credit to the economy grew by 27.4%, according to the IMF Country Report No. 24/319.
Currency movements provide further context. The World Bank’s Lao PDR country page reports that the kip moved from about 9,000 per US dollar in August 2020 to over 21,500 per US dollar in October 2025. These are approximate exchange-rate points at different dates, not an annual average.
Population, poverty, and inequality
World Bank Lao PDR Data lists a 2024 population of 7,769,819 and life expectancy at birth of 69 years. The same source reports a poverty headcount ratio of 7.1% at $3.00 a day in 2024. The poverty line and year matter: this percentage is not a general estimate of every form of poverty.
Internet use reached 66% of the population in 2024, according to World Bank Lao PDR Data. This is an access and usage indicator, not a measure of connection speed, affordability, or quality.
The World Bank Lao PDR country page reports that the Gini index rose from 30.5 in 1991 to 38.8 in 2019. Those observations span different years and describe a change in the distribution of income or consumption as represented by the index. They should not be substituted for the 2024 poverty headcount.
Gender and labor indicators
The IMF Country Report No. 24/319 includes a group of gender and human-capital indicators from different reference years. In 2022, the Gender Development Index was 0.92, the Gender Inequality Index was 0.47, the Global Gender Gap Index was 0.73, and the Women, Business and the Law Index was 85.63. These indexes have different definitions and scales; their values should be compared only within their own frameworks.
For women aged 15–64 in 2022, the female employment-to-population ratio was 54.04%, female labor-force participation was 55.82%, and female unemployment was 3.19%. Women held 21.95% of seats in the national parliament in 2022.
The same IMF source reports intimate-partner violence prevalence of 22.0% among ever-partnered women in 2018. Female ownership of an account at a financial institution was 37.85% in 2017, while female participation in digital payments was 20.22% in 2017. These are older observations than the 2022 labor and representation indicators.
The Female Human Capital Index was 0.47 in 2020. Female adult literacy was 83.37% in the latest available year reported by the IMF source, while female mean years of schooling was 5.00 years. Because the literacy entry is explicitly labeled “latest available year,” it should not be assigned a year that is not stated.
Education and health
Female gross enrollment in primary education was 96.20% in 2022. Female secondary gross enrollment was 55.99% in 2022, and female tertiary gross enrollment was 13.40% in 2021. Gross enrollment can include students outside the official age group, so it is distinct from the share of an age cohort completing school.
Health indicators in the IMF report also refer to specific years. Female adult mortality was 147.60 per 1,000 adults in 2021, and female life expectancy at birth was 70.08 years in 2021. World Bank Lao PDR Data gives overall life expectancy at birth as 69 years in 2024; the different population scope and reference years explain why these figures should not be treated as duplicates.
The maternal mortality ratio was 126 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020. The total fertility rate was 2.50 births per woman in 2021. These measures describe different aspects of reproductive health: maternal mortality counts deaths relative to live births, while fertility is an average number of births per woman.
Taken together, the statistics point to a country with 2024 growth of 4.1% alongside average consumer-price growth of 22.0%, high debt measures, and limited reserve coverage of 2.1 months of prospective imports. Social indicators add a longer-term view, with 2024 population and poverty observations alongside education, health, gender, and inequality measures recorded in earlier years.