I came upon this list of the biggest debtor nations in the world the other day.The key figure to look at in the list is the % size of external debt in relation to the country’s GDP. The list proves quite extraordinary. First off, here it is (sorry bit of a chore, but scan through you’ll get the idea):
| External debt (as % of GDP) | Gross external debt | GDP | External debt per capita | |
| 20. United States | 101.1% | $14.825 trillion | $14.66 trillion | $48,258 |
| 19. Hungary | 120.1% | $225.24 billion | $187.6 billion | $22,739 |
| 18. Australia | 138.9% | $1.23 trillion | $882.4 billion | $57,641 |
| 17. Italy | 146.6% | $2.602 trillion | $1.77 trillion | $44,760 |
| 16. Spain | 179.4% | $2.46 trillion | $1.37 trillion | $60,614 |
| 15. Greece | 182.2% | $579.7 billion | $318.1 billion | $53,984 |
| 14. Germany | 185.1% | $5.44 trillion | $2.94 trillion | $51,572 |
| 13. Portugal | 223.6% | $552.23 billion | $247 billion | $51,572 |
| 12. France | 250% | $5.37 trillion | $2.15 trillion | $83,781 |
| 11. Hong Kong | 250.4% | $815.65 billion | $325.8 billion | $115,612 |
| 10. Norway | 251% | $640.7 billion | $255.3 billion | $137,476 |
| 9. Austria | 261.1% | $867.14 billion | $332 billion | $105,616 |
| 8. Finland | 271.5% | $505.06 billion | $186 billion | $96,197 |
| 7. Sweden | 282.2% | $1.001 trillion | $354.7 billion | $110,479 |
| 6. Denmark | 310.4% | $626.1 billion | $201.7 billion | $113,826 |
| 5. Belgium | 335.9% | $1.324 trillion | $394.3 billion | $127,197 |
| 4. Netherlands | 376.3% | $2.55 trillion | $676.9 billion | $152,380 |
| 3. Switzerland | 401.9% | $1.304 trillion | $324.5 billion | $171,528 |
| 2. United Kingdom | 413.3% | $8.981 trillion | $2.173 trillion | $146,953 |
| 1. Ireland | 1,382% | $2.38 trillion | $172.3 billion | $566,756 |
Now, I have taken several conclusions from this list. Here they are:
1. Who is all this money owed to??? If you add up the combined debt of all these countries it amounts to a number I can’t even begin to conceptualise. Is it all owed to each other??? Is it all owed to China??? The mind boggles.
2. The assumed “basket case” economies of Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece are not very high up on the list. This means that their economies are so structurally flawed that a relatively not very high % debt has caused a lot more trouble than it has in other countries on the list. Either that or their debt burden is not the true cause of their weakness (*cough* the euro *cough*).
3. Conversely, economies seen as being relatively strong are quite high on the list. Note, Switzerland and The Netherlands in particular, plus the Scandinavians.
4. The USA while having the largest debt overall, actually has a surprisingly low % debt.
5. The UK is worryingly high on the list. The current “government” (I use the term generously) tells the UK public that our economy isn’t as bad as the Eurozone. Somehow, however, our debt is astronomically higher than everyone else’s in the EU (apart from Ireland). Meanwhile, Mr Osborne is making a pretty poor job of reducing the structural deficit (read my piece, The UK Budget in figures we can all understand).
6. Ireland, what the HELL were you thinking?!?! I mean, we’ve all made mistakes. But good lord you’ve lost the plot. If someone introduced “Drunk in charge of an economy” as an offence, you’d all be jailed indefinitely. The Irish % is more than double that of 2nd placed UK. I haven’t ever been to Ireland, but I assume that there must be entire metropolises of brand new, never used skyscrapers. I mean, what the hell else were they spending all that money on?
Edmund Greaves is co-editor of The Libertarian Press. He also writes travel articles at the www.curiousenglishman.com
Statistics for “The World’s Biggest Debtor Nations” was provided by CNBC.com
Filed under: Economics, Finance Tagged: debt, gdp
