A conductive paste used for formation of an electrode of a multilayer ceramic capacitor, the conductive paste comprising: a polyvinyl acetal resin that contains a carboxylic acid-modified polyvinyl acetal resin; an organic solvent; and a conductive powder, the polyvinyl acetal resin having, when calculated as a mass average based on the incremental contributions of each polyvinyl acetal resin species present in the polyvinyl acetal resin, an average degree of polymerization of 200 to 800, a carboxyl group content being the proportion of structural units having a carboxyl group in all of the structural units of the polyvinyl acetal resin of 0.05 to 1 mol% measured by FT-IR, a hydroxy group content of 16 to 24 mol%, an acetyl group content measured in conformity with JISK6726 of 0.1 to 3 mol%, and an acetoacetal group content of not more than 25 mol%, the carboxylic acid-modified polyvinyl acetal resin a structural unit that has a carboxyl group represented by the formula: in the formula, R 1 and R 2 each independently representing a CO-C10 alkylene group, X 1 and X 2 each independently representing a hydrogen atom, a metal atom, or a methyl group, characterized in that the polyvinyl acetal resin has a sodium ion content of less than 50 ppm measured with an atomic adsorption spectrometer as further specified in the description, and the polyvinyl acetal resin comprises 80% by weight or less of the carboxylic acid-modified polyvinyl acetal resin in addition to an unmodified polyvinyl acetal resin. a polyvinyl acetal resin that contains a carboxylic acid-modified polyvinyl acetal resin; an organic solvent; and a conductive powder, the polyvinyl acetal resin having, when calculated as a mass average based on the incremental contributions of each polyvinyl acetal resin species present in the polyvinyl acetal resin, an average degree of polymerization of 200 to 800, a carboxyl group content being the proportion of structural units having a carboxyl group in all of the structural units of the polyvinyl acetal resin of 0.05 to 1 mol% measured by FT-IR, a hydroxy group content of 16 to 24 mol%, an acetyl group content measured in conformity with JISK6726 of 0.1 to 3 mol%, and an acetoacetal group content of not more than 25 mol%, the carboxylic acid-modified polyvinyl acetal resin a structural unit that has a carboxyl group represented by the formula: in the formula, R 1 and R 2 each independently representing a CO-C10 alkylene group, X 1 and X 2 each independently representing a hydrogen atom, a metal atom, or a methyl group, characterized in that the polyvinyl acetal resin has a sodium ion content of less than 50 ppm measured with an atomic adsorption spectrometer as further specified in the description, and the polyvinyl acetal resin comprises 80% by weight or less of the carboxylic acid-modified polyvinyl acetal resin in addition to an unmodified polyvinyl acetal resin. in the formula, R 1 and R 2 each independently representing a CO-C10 alkylene group, X 1 and X 2 each independently representing a hydrogen atom, a metal atom, or a methyl group, characterized in that the polyvinyl acetal resin has a sodium ion content of less than 50 ppm measured with an atomic adsorption spectrometer as further specified in the description, and the polyvinyl acetal resin comprises 80% by weight or less of the carboxylic acid-modified polyvinyl acetal resin in addition to an unmodified polyvinyl acetal resin.