Which countries have the highest public debt levels?

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Global debt has climbed at an eye-watering pace over the last decade. According to the International Monetary Fund, global debt climbed to 225% of global GDP in 2017. That’s 12 percentage points higher than the previous record level set in 2009, during the Global Financial Crisis, and many have pointed toward the global debt pile-up, particularly public debt, as the potential culprit for the next global financial crisis.

The increase in global debt over the last decade has been led by public debt in much of the world, as public debt replaced private debt in the post-crisis recession. Much of this was brought on by stimulus programs and quantitative easing policies adopted by central banks around the world in an attempt to turn the global economy around. With interest rates at historic lows around the world, governments took advantage of cheap borrowing costs. However, once economic growth resumed, central banks were reluctant to normalize interest rates for fear that financial markets and economies would not be ready for the shift. Interest rates remained low for the last decade, while most major central banks adopted some kind of quantitative easing policy, which entailed massive purchases of securities.

This is not just a problem in developed economies. Emerging markets and even the poorest countries in the world have been gorging themselves on cheap debt. According to the IMF, debt-to-GDP ratios in emerging market and middle-income economies have reached almost 50%, levels that have not been seen since the 1980s during the Latin American debt crisis; a decade that has come to be known as, “the Lost Decade.” Even the world’s poorest economies, which had their debt written off in 2005 by the G7 countries’ Gleneagles agreement, have seen their debt-to-GDP surge to 40% of GDP.

With global debt levels at all-time highs and global growth appearing to be on the downward trend going into 2019, the challenge for central banks and governments will be to reduce sovereign debt by following more prudent fiscal policies i.e. bring fiscal deficits under control and reduce state reliance on debt.

With that said, let’s take a look at the top 10 countries in terms of public debt-to-GDP according to the FocusEconomics Consensus Forecasts for 2019 through 2023.

Public Debt Forecasts 2019-2023

Rank	Country	2019 Public Debt % of GDP (projected)	2023 Public Debt % of GDP (projected)
1	Japan	236	227
2	Greece	175	164
3	Lebanon	153	156
4	Venezuela	152	–
5	Italy	131	128
6	Portugal	119	107
7	Singapore	116	119
8	Mozambique	114	107
9	United States	108	114
10	Belgium	100	95

 

11	France	98	94
12	Spain	96	89
13	Jordan	94	83
14	Cyprus	94	77
15	Bahrain	92	85
16	Jamaica	92	80
17	Puerto Rico	92	77
18	Belize	91	88
19	Egypt	88	73
20	United Kingdom	85	81
21	Yemen	84	72
22	Argentina	81	75
23	Brazil	79	82
24	SriLanka	77	73
25	Angola	74	61
26	Pakistan	74	71
27	Tunisia	73	74
28	El Salvador	73	71
29	Mongolia	72	51
30	Croatia	72	62
31	Austria	72	64
32	Uruguay	71	78
33	Hungary	70	64
34	Montenegro	70	60
35	Zambia	69	70
36	India	68	–
37	Slovenia	67	59
38	Ghana	66	61
39	Albania	66	59
40	Laos	65	67
41	Trinidad	65	67
42	Morocco	64	62
43	Ukraine	63	54
44	Ireland	61	51
45	Israel	60	54
46	Kenya	59	57
47	Costa Rica	59	63
48	Finland	59	55
49	Ethiopia	58	55
50	Vietnam	57	55
51	Germany	57	49
52	South Africa	57	58
53	Armenia	57	57
54	Kyrgyzstan	56	60
55	Serbia	55	47
56	Nicaragua	55	68
57	Tajikistan	55	61
58	Malaysia	52	51
59	Bolivia	52	54
60	Iraq	51	49
61	Qatar	51	43
62	Netherlands	50	43
63	Ecuador	49	52
64	Azerbaijan	49	34
65	Poland	49	47
66	Slovakia	48	42
67	Mexico	47	49
68	Oman	47	52
69	Cote d’Ivoire	47	45
70	Colombia	46	46
71	Belarus	46	33
72	Malta	44	38
73	Thailand	43	47
74	Uganda	43	41
75	Georgia	43	41
76	Macedonia	43	41
77	Dominican Republic	42	42
78	Tanzania	41	42
79	Philippines	41	39
80	Panama	40	38
81	Iran	40	35
82	Australia	40	36
83	Algeria	38	35
84	Korea	38	38
85	Bosnia	38	34
86	Romania	37	39
87	Lithuania	37	31
88	Latvia	37	32
89	Sweden	36	32
90	Iceland	35	25
91	Haiti	35	34
92	Cambodia	35	38
93	Cameroon	35	34
94	Denmark	35	30
95	Moldova	35	39
96	Myanmar	34	35
97	Norway	33	31
98	Bangladesh	33	34
99	Turkmenistan	33	36
100	Czech Republic	31	27
101	Taiwan	31	30
102	Turkey	30	29
103	Indonesia	30	29
104	New Zealand	28	24
105	Switzerland	28	23
106	Peru	27	25
107	Kuwait	26	34
108	Chile	26	28
109	Nigeria	26	28
110	Guatemala	26	26
111	Uzbekistan	24	25
112	Kazakhstan	24	21
113	Bulgaria	23	22
114	Saudi Arabia	22	26
115	Luxembourg	21	20
116	UAE	20	18
117	Paraguay	20	22
118	Kosovo	19	22
119	China	18	28
120	DRC	16	9
121	Botswana	15	12
122	Russia	13	11
123	Estonia	8	7
124	Brunei	2	2

Source: Focus Economics

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