Which countries sell inflation-linked savings bonds? Poland’s EDO next to all 195 countries in the world

Short answer: We checked all 195 countries in the world. In 106 of them an individual can buy government bonds at issuance, but in 2026 only 6 pay inflation plus a margin fixed on the day of purchase: Poland, United States, Hungary, South Africa, Italy and Czechia. Only Poland (COI since 1999, EDO since 2004) and the United States (since 1998) have done so without a break for more than 20 years. The November 2026 EDO margin (2.00%) is higher than the I Bond fixed rate (1.40%) and Hungary’s new PMÁP (0.10%), but lower than South Africa’s (4.75% on 10-year bonds).

Which countries sell savings bonds to individuals?

We count a state when an official source says plainly that an individual can buy its bonds at issuance: directly, through a bank or through a broker. Buying from other investors on the exchange does not count. That is the case in 106 of the 195 countries (the 193 UN members plus the two UN observer states, the Vatican and Palestine). Germany, France, the Netherlands, Canada and the Nordic countries are not among them: there only banks buy at issuance, and people buy government bonds later, through a bank or on the exchange. In recent years retail programmes have appeared or returned in several European countries: Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Czechia. The other 89 countries have no official sales to individuals: most often only banks buy at issuance, a few have no debt or no domestic government bonds, and in some the issuer announces no offer for individuals at all, also because of war or crisis. Hong Kong is not a country, but we show it separately because it sells the inflation-linked Silver Bond to residents aged 60 and over.

Since when have governments sold inflation-linked savings bonds?

Poland has sold them every month without a break since October 1999: first the 4-year COI, and since October 2004 also the 10-year EDO. Only the United States has done it for longer, since September 1998 (I Bonds). South Africa has had them since at least 2007 and Hungary since 2009. The United Kingdom sold them from 1975, but since 2011 it only accepts renewals. Italy and Czechia sell them in waves lasting a few days or weeks.

How does the EDO margin compare with other countries?

The margin is the part of the rate above inflation that the state promises on the day of purchase and keeps until maturity. Each country adds it to its own inflation, so the comparison shows how much each state promised above its own price growth, not which bond pays more in any one currency. The EDO margin was higher than the I Bond fixed rate in 100% of months since 2004 and higher than the UK certificates’ margin in 100% of months. South Africa is the opposite: EDO was higher in only 12% of months since 2007. Hungary and Italy are mixed: EDO was higher for 53% of PMÁP series and 57% of BTP Italia issues.

How much over inflation does a buyer get today?

Someone buying EDO in November 2026 gets 2.00% above Polish inflation from the second year. South Africa (4.75% on 10-year bonds) and Hungary’s Babakötvény (3.00%) promise more, but the latter can only be bought for children. The I Bond fixed rate is 1.40%, new Hungarian PMÁP series pay 0.10%, and Czechia’s 2026 bonds carry no margin at all for the first four years.

What does each of the 195 countries sell to individuals?

The full list, with the type of rate and the issuer page where we checked each row.

How we checked

We checked each state in official sources, above all on the issuer’s own website: the finance ministry, the debt agency, or the central bank selling bonds on the state’s behalf (as of 25 October 2026). Every state has an answer: when no official source says that an individual can buy its bonds at issuance, we count it as a state with no official sales to individuals and give the reason in the table. Each row rests on a sentence from an official source, and we keep copies of the pages. The country table, products and margins are available as an open CSV dataset (Polish column names, country and product names in both languages). We used IMF reports only for states without working issuer websites: Kiribati, Libya, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu and São Tomé and Príncipe. A copy of an official document on another site or a state news agency is the source for Bolivia, Haiti, Mozambique and Timor-Leste. No issuer website and no offer at all: Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan. A central bank’s own securities do not count, for example Bolivia’s central bank bonds in UFV, an inflation-indexed unit. Other countries’ margins come from issue documents: results of each BTP Italia placement, offers for each PMÁP series, the RSA Retail Savings Bonds rate table, NS&I rate history and Czech issue terms. Polish figures come from our open dataset on Polish savings bonds (archived on Zenodo), and the I Bond fixed rate from TreasuryDirect (last change in November 2026). The OECD reviewed retail programmes in 40 countries in 2025; it counts differently, for example including Australia, where government bonds are only available on the exchange.

Both datasets are open and also kept outside our site: the Polish bond dataset on dane.gov.pl, Poland’s open data portal, and on Zenodo; the country table on dane.gov.pl and Zenodo. The European Commission Library lists the Polish bond dataset in its guide to statistics and data on Poland.

Related

• Poland’s EDO savings bonds vs US I Bonds since 2004
• This page in Polish

By Rafał Błażewski, obrotomierz.pl. Sources: issuer websites and official documents for all 195 countries and Hong Kong, and IMF reports. We show who sells what and do not recommend any product; we earn nothing from government bonds.