Found another GREEN SHOOT!!!!!! US 15th on the list calls for another GREEN SHOOT, this news is gets better and better. In today's struggling global markets, many national economies have looked to their government and foreign lenders for financial support, which translates to increased spending, borrowing and in most cases, growing national debt. Deficit spending, government debt and private sector borrowing are the norm in most western countries, but due in part to the global financial crisis, some nations and economies are in considerably worse debt positions than others. External debt is a measure of a nation's foreign liabilities, capital plus interest that a country must eventually pay. This number not only includes government debt, but also debt owed by the private sector and individuals. So, how does the US debt position compare to that of other countries? A useful measure of a country's debt position is by comparing gross external debt to GDP, which offers a direct relation of a country's total debt to the size of its economy. In this report, all countries are among the world's 50 largest economies, and are ranked by current external debt as a percentage of 2008 GDP. #15 USA External debt (as % of GDP): 95.09% External debt per capita: $44,358 Gross external debt: $13.627 trillion (2008 Q3) 2008 GDP: $14.330 trillion #14 Norway External debt (as % of GDP): 114% External debt per capita: $118,353 Gross external debt: $551.59 billion 2008 GDP: $481.1 billion #13 Finland External debt (as % of GDP): 116% External debt per capita: $62,579 Gross external debt: $328.56 billion (Q4 2008) 2008 GDP: $281.2 billion #12 Sweden External debt (as % of GDP): 129% External debt per capita: $73,245 Gross external debt: $663.58 billion (Q4 2008)* Riksbank Data 2008 GDP: $512.9 billion #11 Spain External debt (as % of GDP): 137.5% External debt per capita: $57,091 Gross external debt: $2.313 trillion (Q4 2008) 2008 GDP: $1.683 trillion #10 Germany External debt (as % of GDP): 137.5% External debt per capita: $63,767 Gross external debt: $5.25 trillion (Q4 2008) 2008 GDP: $3.818 trillion #9 Denmark External debt (as % of GDP): 159% External debt per capita: $107,026 Gross external debt: $588.7 billion (Q3 2008) 2008 GDP: $369.6 billion #8 France External debt (as % of GDP): 168% External debt per capita: $78,070 Gross external debt: $5.001 trillion 2008 GDP: $2.978 trillion #7 Austria External debt (as % of GDP): 191% External debt per capita: $100,787 Gross external debt: $827.49 billion (Q4 2008) 2008 GDP: $432.4 billion #6 Switzerland External debt (as % of GDP): 264% External debt per capita: $171,478 Gross external debt: $1.304 trillion (Q4 2008) 2008 GDP: $492.6 billion #5 Netherlands External debt (as % of GDP): 268% External debt per capita: $145,959 Gross external debt: $2.439 trillion (Q4 2008) 2008 GDP: $909.5 billion #4 Hong Kong External debt (as % of GDP): 295% External debt per capita: $93,539 Gross external debt: $659.93 billion (Q4 2008) 2008 GDP: $223.8 billion #3 Belgium External Debt (as % of GDP): 327% External debt per capita: $155,362 Gross External Debt: $1.618 trillion (Q4 2008) 2008 GDP: $495.4 billion #2 United Kingdom External debt (as % of GDP): 336% External debt per capita: $153,616 Gross external debt: $9.388 trillion (Q4 2008) 2008 GDP: $2.787 trillion #1 Ireland External debt (as % of GDP): 811% External debt per capita: $549,819 Gross external debt: $2.311 trillion (Q4 2008) 2008 GDP: $285 billion
Those numbers are debatable and outdated. Belgium for instance nationalized it's 800 billion $ balance sheet bank Fortis which is shown in the numbers but the franchise has been sold to French bank BNP Paribas so that changes the whole picture. The Irish haven't found any buyers for their banks so that's why they are ranked number 1 obviously. Even then, say the country Belgium does have a $1.618 trillion external debt. What those numbers don't tell is that the 10 million people inhabiting country has 850 Billion euro or 1,2 trillion $ in assets. They just did a survey here so I have the numbers with me: Cash: 22 billion Euro bank accounts: 300 billion Euro Bonds: 77 billion Euro stocks: 45 billion Euro other: 88 billion Euro funds: 90 billion Euro Life insurance and pension funds: 207 billion Euro. More then 70% of the people own their own house. Total value housing market estimated at 900 billion euro. Anyway, when you calculate unfunded liabilities such as social security and medicare etc you can add a couple of dozen trillions to the US debt and I asume this goes for other countries on the list as well so the total picture really isnt that clear. To conclude I'd say it's a shady piece of journalism that tries it's best to make the rest of the world look bad in comparison to the USA but does a mediocre job at best in doing so.
This is a sort of a stupid measure, in all honesty, as it includes private sector borrowing, which distorts the picture massively. For instance, if I am a large Swiss or HK corporate, I cannot effectively borrow in the Swiss or HK mkt, 'cause it's not big enough. Thus I will issue in USD, where there's liquidity and capital. So I am, according to CNBC, adding to my country's total external debt. By the same argument, the total external debt for the US is much smaller, because US corps all borrow in the US mkt. What this means is that, while correct, this CNBC measure is actually meaningless to determine the leverage of the economy. Seriously, Denmark being more leveraged than US? Gimme a break... Moreover, Japan surely should be somewhere near the top of that list, but it's not, because most of the creditors are Japanese (so the debt is not external). If you want something a bit more meaningful, look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_debt BTW, I sorta disagree with debaser... Assets are sort of relevant, but GDP is a lot more relevant, which is why it is debt/GDP. I agree with him about the methodology questions, such as whether various off balance-sheet liabilities (UK's PFI, etc) are included in the tally.