Some people might say that six, seven was the most important number of 2025. But our global economic experts beg to differ. This was a year in which the world’s largest economy hiked its tariff rates to the highest level in a century, cryptocurrency usage surged across the globe, sanctions evaders found new ways to avoid detection, global public debt climbed ever higher, and low-income countries backtracked on gains made over decades. Below, our GeoEconomics Center experts take you inside the numbers that mattered the most in 2025.
16.8 percent
THE AVERAGE EFFECTIVE TARIFF RATE IN THE UNITED STATES
This is the highest rate consumers have faced since 1935. The cost of tariffs are being passed onto consumers, who are feeling the impact on their pocketbooks. The Budget Lab at Yale found that the 16.8 percent effective tariff rate represents a loss of $1,700 for the average household.
—Christy Goldsmith Romero is nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
$840 billion
Total US-Mexico trade in 2024
In 2025, Mexico became the United States’ largest trading partner, with major increases in imports from the United States to Mexico. Mexico has already been the largest exporter to the United States since 2024, when total bilateral trade reached $840 billion.
—Earl Anthony Wayne is nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
7
The number of days between ‘Liberation Day’ and the suspension of US ‘reciprocal’ tariffs
The episode underscored the Trump administration’s highly transactional approach to trade. The threatened tariff rates the administration presented during the April 2 “Liberation Day” announcement initially rattled global markets, but the administration suspended them only seven days later on April 9. The United States then pursued concessions through bilateral negotiations aligned the administration’s foreign and domestic policy priorities. The outcomes of these negotiations ranged from partial successes with partners such as Japan and South Korea to a stalemate with China over critical minerals.
—Martin Mühleisen is nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
5 (out of 6)
The number of G7 partners the United States has concluded trade, investment, and tariff deals with
In other words, the United States has concluded deals with all of its Group of Seven (G7) partners except Canada. Of these deals, two (the EU and Japan) include a significant parallel commitment by US partners to purchase considerable quantities of liquefied natural gas (LNG) through 2030. These two tariff and LNG deals ensure that economic and geopolitical interests among G7 members remain aligned vis-à-vis Russia and China. With the USMCA up for reconsideration in 2026, few should be surprised that neither Canada nor Mexico have concluded binding deals with the United States during 2025.
—Barbara C. Matthews is nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
17
US TRADE AGREEMENTS SINCE ‘LIBERATION DAY’
It is easy to dismiss these trade agreements as vague “frameworks,” yet their global geographical reach and substantive breadth—covering regulatory barriers, digital trade, and critical minerals, among other areas—suggest something more significant. Taken together, and given their growing detail and convergence, they point less to ad hoc transactional deals and more to a coordinated effort to set new rules of the road through bilateral agreements.
—L. Daniel Mullaney is nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
88.2 percent
THE GROSS VALUE OF GOVERNMENT DEBT-TO-GDP RATIO IN THE EUROZONE AT THE END OF Q2 2025
Between the first and second quarters of the 2025 fiscal year, the eurozone’s overall debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio rose from 87.7 percent to 88.2 percent. This was due mainly to persistently high interest rates and fiscal constraints. While this metric may not be alarming when compared to the increase of global government debt-to-GDP ratio to 94.7 percent in 2025, the underlying factors and contrasting macroeconomic fundamentals driving this increase pose significant risks to the region’s financial stability.
—Nisha Narayanan is nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
5
Number of countries and territories on China’s digital currency platform
China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia—these are the countries and territories now part of mBridge, Beijing’s cross-border, wholesale, blockchain-based payment system. This year, the Bank for International Settlements, which had overseen the project since its inception in 2020, had to remove itself from its work on mBridge due to concerns over China’s ambitions for the payment system. These concerns, compounded by suggestions from Russian officials that mBridge could be used as the bridge for a future BRICS currency, effectively ended the possibility of any Western participation.
—Josh Lipsky is chair, international economics at the Atlantic Council and the senior director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
$35 trillion
STABLECOIN TRANSFER VOLUME
Stablecoin market capitalization increased by almost 50 percent since the start of the year from $203 billion to over $300 billion. The usage of stablecoins has grown as well, as demonstrated by an increase in transfer volume growing from $27 trillion to $35 trillion in the past year.
—Nikhil Raghuveera is nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
2
THE NUMBER OF SANCTIONS THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PLACED ON RUSSIA THIS YEAR
In October, the Trump administration sanctioned two Russian oil majors, Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as their subsidiaries. These were the first and only sanctions the administration placed on Russia this year. This amount of sanctions against Russian entities was a far cry from the hundreds of sanctions the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom levied against Russia in 2025 and the thousands of designations the Group of Seven (G7) sanctions coalition placed on Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
—Kimberly Donovan is a director at the Atlantic Council GeoEconomics Center’s Economic Statecraft Initiative.
61 percent
REDUCTION IN ORGANIC CLICK-THROUGH RATES WHEN WEB SEARCH USERS ARE SHOWN AI OVERVIEWS
Today, most websites display advertisements as a primary source of revenue, relying on search engines to attract users. But AI-powered search engines may be eroding this multi-billion-dollar industry. A study from Seer Interactive record a 61 percent decline in click-through rates for search results with AI overviews from June 2024 to September 2025.
—Giulia Fanti is nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
2.77 percent
THE PERCENTAGE OF AFRICANS THAT LIVE IN COUNTRIES WITH AN INVESTMENT-GRADE SOVEREIGN CREDIT RATING
Less than 10 percent of emerging market and developing economies have an investment-grade sovereign credit rating, and almost seventy low-income countries have no rating at all. Only three African countries (Mauritius, Botswana, and Morocco) have an investment-grade rating. Based on the most recent available World Bank population data, these three countries only account for 2.77 percent of the continent’s population. Credit ratings play a critical role in determining the availability and cost of capital: Countries with weaker ratings pay interest rates that are, on average, twenty basis points higher—nine times steeper—than countries with better ratings.
—Nicole Goldin is nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center and head of equitable development at United Nations University-Centre for Policy Research.
2.7 percent
CHINA’S ESTIMATED 2025 GDP GROWTH RATE
Beijing will likely announce 2025 GDP growth near the 5 percent target it set out for the year. But that number would be inconsistent with its own proxy indicators, including other official data series such as China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Unvarnished estimates, including a forthcoming report from Rhodium Group, suggest a growth rate closer to 2.7 percent.
—Daniel Rosen is nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center and a founding partner of Rhodium Group.
¥ 13 billion
THE TOTAL VALUE OF PANDA BONDS ISSUED BY FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS
In 2025, foreign governments issued a record thirteen billion yuan in Panda bonds—yuan-denominated debt sold by foreign borrowers in China’s onshore market. This remains limited compared with the vast dollar bond market, but the surge in sovereign yuan-debt compared to previous years is nonetheless noteworthy.
—Lize de Kruijf is a program assistant at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center’s Economic Statecraft Initiative.
$1 billion
The amount of money that Iran smuggled to Hezbollah, according to US intelligence
US intelligence assesses that Iran has smuggled $1 billion to Hezbollah since January. These funds, which reportedly come from the sale of Iranian oil, are funneled through exchange houses and private companies in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, then moved to Lebanon through informal money transfer networks. Some funds are also reportedly smuggled via Turkey and Iraq. This amount of funding for Hezbollah reflects three factors: First, the Iranian regime is adapting and working to find new ways to send more funds to Hezbollah after routes through Syria and Beirut’s airport were largely shutdown. Second, the Iranian regime has clearly decided to double down on its efforts to rearm and rebuild the only real proxy it has left in the Levant. Third, Hezbollah was financially hit hard during the 2024 escalation with Israel given that the terrorist group has received approximately double what it normally receives from the Iranian regime in a year.
—Hagar Hajjar Chemali is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
53 percentage points
THE INCREASE IN IMPORTS FROM CANADA CLAIMING DUTY-FREE TREATMENT UNDER THE USMCA SINCE THE END OF JANUARY
While free trade agreements are often framed as tools for regional integration, they are only as strong as the incentive to use them. The Trump administration’s 2025 increase in most-favored-nation tariffs—paired with exemptions under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)—has made USMCA more valuable. Free trade agreements can effectively promote regional integration and supply-chain diversification away from China only when most-favored-nation tariffs are sufficiently high to make regional sourcing economically attractive.
—Beth Baltzan is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
7
THE NUMBER OF COMPANIES IN WHICH THE US GOVERNMENT ACQUIRED EQUITY OWNERSHIP
In a year of substantial changes across US policies relating to economic security, the decision by the current administration to take ownership stakes in a number of companies stands out. It began earlier this year, when the White House announced that the US government acquired a “golden share” in US Steel to resolve the national security review of the company’s acquisition by Nippon Steel. The trend continued throughout the year, with the administration concluding agreements to acquire stakes in at least six more companies by the end of 2025.
—Jesse Sucher is nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
$37 billion
NEW LENDING APPROVED BY THE IMF
From January to October 2025, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) Executive Board approved new financial arrangements for ten member countries: Argentina, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Morocco, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, the Gambia, Jordan, and Pakistan. The $20 billion Extended Fund Facility that the IMF granted to Argentina—a measure designed for countries with deep, structural balance-of-payments challenges—accounted for nearly 60 percent of the total value of IMF lending approved this year.
—Bart Piasecki is an assistant director at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
$690 billion
THE ESTIMATED VOLUME OF MIGRANT WORKERS’ REMITTANCES TO LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES
This figure far exceeds the amount of official development assistance distributed in 2025, which has declined by 26 percent globally over the past two years. Remittances to low- and middle-income countries were also much higher than global foreign direct investment, which has plummeted to its lowest level in two decades. However, the cost of sending remittances remains excessive. The governments of low- and middle-income countries should develop payment infrastructures to reduce these costs and help recipients.
—Hung Tran is nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
Below 0
THE US NET INCOME BALANCE
For decades, the net US income balance had been positive, as Americans’ yields on foreign assets exceeded those on US assets held by non-US residents. This was largely because the United States was viewed as a safe haven and the dollar is central to the global economy. In 2024, the balance dipped to slightly negative, at -$51 billion. This shift reflects the rapid deterioration of the US net international investment position as foreign holdings of US assets outpaced Americans’ holdings abroad—a trend that intensified in 2025 and deepened the deficit.
The 2025 deficit stands at -$460 billion before the release of data for the fiscal year’s fourth quarter.
—Marc-Olivier Strauss-Kahn is nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
5
THE NUMBER OF COUNTRIES THAT INTRODUCED NEW NATIONAL SECURITY-RELATED INVESTMENT SCREENING MECHANISMS
In 2025, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, and Ireland all introduced new investment screening mechanisms. This means that all EU member states now or will soon have an investment screening mechanism in operation, complementing the EU-wide investment screening cooperation mechanism. This marks a rapid expansion of such measures—forty-four countries across the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the EU, and the Group of Twenty (G20) now have formal review tools, up from twenty-eight in 2019. This trend portends increasingly fragmented global supply, ownership, and technology chains in the years ahead.
—Sarah Bauerle Danzman is nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
42
NUMBER OF DAYS THE US ENFORCED ‘AFFILIATES RULE’ EXPORT RESTRICTIONS AGAINST CHINA
On September 29, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security issued the “affiliates rule,” a move targeting Chinese companies that extended export restrictions to affiliates of entities on the Entity List and Military End-User List. On November 10, in connection with a wider US-China trade truce, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security suspended its enforcement after just forty-two days in effect. Pending further developments, the affiliates rule will be reinstated on November 10, 2026, 365 days following the suspension.
—Annie Froehlich is nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
38
THE NUMBER OF CONSECUTIVE MONTHS THAT CHINESE PRODUCER PRICES HAVE FALLEN (THROUGH NOVEMBER 2025)
China’s slowing economy—facing weak consumer demand, anemic investment, a lingering real estate crisis, and massive local-government debts—is overwhelmingly relying on industrial output and exports to generate growth. The problem is that this full-tilt factory production has generated overcapacity and intense competition for market share.
—Jeremy Mark is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
92 percent
THE SHARE OF RARE-EARTH PROCESSING AND SEPARATION CONTROLLED BY CHINA
Much focus is given to sourcing of rare Earth elements, of which deposits exist in many countries throughout the world, notably in 2025, Ukraine signed a mineral deal with the United States. Far less focus is given to the fact that to process and refine the rare-earth elements that the world is almost entirely reliant on China both for facilities to support refining and the equipment required to process rare-earth oxides into metals, alloys, and magnets.
—Daniel Tannebaum is nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
1 percent
US EXCISE TAX ON REMITTANCES IN 2026
As of 2023, the average cost of remittances was 6.4 percent, or about $12 for a $200 transfer. But this year, they became even more pricey. In July, Congress passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which included a 1 percent excise tax on all cash-based remittances from the United States starting on January 1, 2026.
—Juliet Lancey is a young global professional at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
20 years
AVERAGE AGE OF RUSSIAN SHADOW-FLEET VESSELS
Age is not just a number for Russia’s shadow fleet—it is the strongest predictor of maritime accidents. While mainstream oil tankers are on average thirteen years old, vessels moving sanctioned Russian crude oil are on average twenty years old. With Russia relying on old vessels that fall below safety standards to transport its oil, even minor failures or collisions could trigger a large-scale spill, posing an environmental threat to shared waters.
—Mary Kate Adami is a young global professional at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
$9.6 trillion
THE AVERAGE GLOBAL DAILY CURRENCY TRADING VOLUME
In 2025, global foreign exchange trading reached a new high, with an average daily turnover of about $9.6 trillion in April, up from roughly $7.5 trillion in 2022, according to the BIS Triennial Survey.
—Alisha Chhangani is an assistant director at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
$4.79 billion
THE VALUE OF DATA PROCESSING EQUIPMENT THE UNITED STATES IMPORTED FROM TAIWAN IN JULY
The United States imported only $4.84 billion worth of parts and accessories for automatic data processing machines from Taiwan in the first six months of 2025 combined. So what happened in July? A sharp rise in imports of cutting-edge graphics processing units made up the majority of this spike, as AI firms in the United States raced to procure this critical component ahead of the 20 percent US tariff on Taiwan, which went into effect in August.
—Jessie Yin is an assistant director at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
Less than 10 percent
THE SHARE OF BILLS IN CONGRESS ABOUT FRONTIER TECHNOLOGIES THAT BECOME LAW
In 2025, lawmakers introduced an unprecedented volume of legislation on AI, crypto, and autonomous vehicles at both the federal and state levels, yet only a small fraction became law, with most bills serving primarily as political messaging rather than viable policy. More consequential outcomes have instead emerged through selective enactments, regulatory implementation, and early court decisions. In this environment, it’s become challenging for startups and policymakers to distinguish real signals from legislative noise.
—JP Schnapper-Casteras is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
52 percent
YEAR-OVER-YEAR GROWTH IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA’S ON-CHAIN CRYPTO ACTIVITY
Cryptocurrency adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa has been on a steady rise, with on-chain activity increasing by 52 percent and total value received exceeding $205 billion, according to Chainalysis. The region now ranks as the world’s third fastest-growing crypto region behind Latin America and the Asia Pacific. For many Africans, stablecoins offer a practical and reliable way to save, make payments, and send remittances in an environment marked by currency volatility and limited financial inclusion.
—Oyinkansola Akin-Olugbade is a young global professional at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
