Back to reality and what’s happening in the world today.
I received a bunch of stats and facts from one of my readers last week lookiing at public (governmental) debt across various countries and geographies, and comparing internal debt (money borrowed within country) with external debt (money borrowed from overseas).
Here’s the low-down.
Surprisingly or not, Japan and Greece are the worst government borrowers with public debt at 229% and 163% of GDP respectively, although America owes more than it produces too, with government borrowing running at 103% of GDP.
The good news for the UK is not only that Public Debt is not bad – 62% of GDP – but most of it is borrowed from overseas.
Our near £10 trillion of borrowing is all coming from other countries, which is near twice the levels of France and Germany and way more than the USA who hardly borrow anything overseas by comparison.
However, it’s not all good news as debts are likely to increase over the next few years, with borrowing increasing from the current level of 62% of GDP to over 95% by 2016. This is due to the lack of economic growth more than anything else, along with other issues related to benefits and pensions.
Unfortunately, many of our European brethren are in the same boat.
So which government borrows the littlest?
Russia.
Russia’s public debt is just 9.6% of GDP.
Russia’s closely followed by China and Australia, with debts running at 25.8% and 22.9% of GDP respectively.
The full infographic provides more analysis around the net international investment positions of nations, debt per capita, annual deficit levels and more, so check it out.
Oh, and thanks to Liam Fisher at IronFX for the infographic.
Fascinating read and infographic, Chris. In deep waters, yep. Do you think we've created a new sport, say 'under water-boarding' ? Hope we can rise up with a wave of real smart thought and hard work across the pond...
Posted by: Lisa Kuhn Phillips | January 10, 2013 at 10:33 PM