External Debt and Public Debt as % of GDP, by country

July 28, 2011

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In the United States, a highly controversial issue right now is the debt ceiling limit.

The current debt ceiling of the US, set by law, is $14.3 trillion. According to the United States Treasury, this limit was reached in May 2011 and, if the limit is not raised, the US could fulfill all its obligations only until August 2, 2011 — less than a week from now.

Thus, the US government insists, the debt ceiling must be raised in order to avoid damaging repercussions to the US economy and, consequently, to the global economy. Not raising the limit would result to a drastic reduction in the country’s spending and a possible default on its loan obligations.

At $14.3 trillion debt as of May 2011, the United States has the biggest external debt among all countries worldwide. The United Kingdom is second with $8.98 trillion, while Germany follows next with $4.71 trillion.

External Debt refers to “the total public and private debt owed to nonresidents repayable in internationally accepted currencies, goods, or services.” Simply stated, external debt is the combined total debt or loan of the public (government) and private sector, payable in a foreign currency.

The list of selected countries with their total external debt is shown below.

TOTAL EXTERNAL DEBT OF SELECTED COUNTRIES

Rank	Country	Total External Debt (in US Dollars)	As of	% of GDP
1	United States	14.3 trillion	16 May 2011	95%
2	United Kingdom	8.98 trillion	30 June 2010	400%
3	Germany	4.71 trillion	30 June 2010	142%
4	France	4.70 trillion	30 June 2010	182%
5	Netherlands	3.73 trillion	31 December 2009	471%
6	Japan	2.44 trillion	30 September 2010	45%
7	Ireland	2.25 trillion	30 September 2010	1,103%
8	Norway	2.23 trillion	30 June 2010	538%
9	Italy	2.22 trillion	30 June 2010	108%
10	Spain	2.17 trillion	30 June 2010	154%
11	Luxembourg	1.89 trillion	30 June 2010	3,443%
14	Australia	1.17 trillion	31 December 2010	95%
15	Canada	1.01 trillion	30 June 2010	64%
19	Greece	532.9 billion	30 June 2010	174%
22	China	406.6 billion	31 December 2010	7%
28	India	237.1 billion	31 December 2010	15%
30	Indonesia	196.1 billion	31 December 2010	28%
42	Thailand	82.5 billion	31 December 2010	26%
44	Malaysia	72.6 billion	31 December 2010	31%
47	Philippines	59.78 billion	30 September 2010	32%

Another debt statistic that is of utmost importance is the country’s level of public debt. Public debt is the “cumulative total of all government borrowings less repayments that are denominated in a country’s home currency.” In layman’s terms, public debt is the total loan amount of the sovereign state’s government.

Comparing the level of public debt with the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) produces the Debt-to-GDP ratio. A low debt-to-GDP ratio indicates that the county’s economy is generally healthy because it produces a large number of goods and services that are high enough to pay back its debts.

Below is a table showing the public debt-to-GDP percentage of selected countries.

PUBLIC DEBT OF SELECTED COUNTRIES AS A PERCENTAGE OF GDP

Rank	Country	% of GDP	As of
1	Japan	225.8%	2010
2	Saint Kitts and Nevis	185.0%	2010
3	Lebanon	150.7%	2010
4	Zimbabwe	149.0%	2010
5	Greece	144.0%	2010
6	Iceland	123.8%	2010
7	Jamaica	123.2%	2010
8	Italy	118.1%	2010
9	Singapore	102.4%	2010
10	Belgium	98.6%	2010
11	Ireland	94.2%	2010
14	France	83.5%	2010
19	Germany	78.8%	2010
23	United Kingdom	76.5%	2010
36	United States	58.9%	2010
41	Vietnam	56.7%	2010
42	Philippines	56.5%	2010
44	India	55.9%	2010
48	Malaysia	53.1%	2010
62	Thailand	42.3%	2010