Loaning to the World: Analysis of World of Bank Loan Data Using SQL

Part of being a member of the human race is we have a moral duty to help those in need. Helping others can lead to an overall betterment of the community as a whole. This can extend to other countries as well leading to a better world. Established by the World Bank in 1960, the International Development Association (IDA) was created to help the poorest countries. Their goal is to provide zero to low-interest loans and grants with the hope to reduce inequality, grow the economy, create higher paying jobs, and improve overall living conditions. [1] The purpose of this analysis is to get an idea of how to best manage the loans for each of these countries.

What I Learned:

• India has made the most transactions

• Ukraine's amount owed seems tied with the Russian invasion

• Africa seems to be the country that is most benefiting

Data:

The data collected comes from the World Bank and can be accessed here. The data is kept up to date quarterly. This data was last updated April 13, 2023. The dataset includes the country the loan was issued to, the status of the loan, the amount of the loan, interest rates, etc. The analysis was performed using bit.io an open source PostgreSQL database.

Analysis:

The first data to be observed was to take a look at the total number of transactions in the data.

Output

count
INT8
2320570

This data indicates that the IDA funded a total of 2,320,570 individual transactions. Then it is important to see how many countries are actually involved in this program.

Output

The output showed a total of 137 countries. Some of these were actually loans to the International Finance Corporation. The actual total is revealed to be 123 distinct countries. The IFC is one of the 11 distinct regions being designated with the region other. The purpose of the IFC is to focus on growth in the private sector of the country [2]

Based on these regions, it would be important to look into which countries currently owe the towards to IDA.

India is the country that receives the most aid. One important detail to notice is that Ukraine is second, likely due to the recent invasion from Russia.

Next, the data was observed to see the total transactions for each country.

A few interesting details to gather is that Ukraine has only 20 total transactions and when looking at the date of the loans, they coincide with the Russian Invasion.

Next the countries were ordered by ascending service charge rates.

These are the top five countries that have a service charge rate of zero. It appears that most of the countries are in Africa that has this rate.

The Overall Trends:

When looking at the data you can get a general idea of how which countries receive what aid. Indi receives the most which might tie into it having a large population. African countries has a high representation with receiving aid. It is interesting to see Ukraine with such a high amount owed, but it makes sense when taking into account the recent events from the Russian invasion.

What can we do with this information?

When looking at the rates, it might be of interest to have lower service charge rates to help some of the countries be able to better pay off loans. The bank could look at which countries are the most successful and try to apply that to other countries. The bank could also recommend that countries focus on specific project that can help with funds.

It is good to see that there is aid available to help countries out. This is important when it comes to making sure all countries can provide their citizens a better life.

Sources:

[1] https://ida.worldbank.org/en/what-is-ida

[2]https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/corp_ext_content/ifc_external_corporate_site/about+ifc_new