Surprise... Surprise... Which country is the highest in Government Debt?

Written By Lianna Brinded
Refer from Businessinsider.my

The 17 countries with the highest level of government debt

All eyes are back on Greece in April as the country tries to unlock more funds from international creditors to help mend its battered economy.
But despite racking up huge amounts of government debt — Greece is not the most indebted country in the world.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Survey looks at the financial health and risks of countries around the world.
One of the most interesting and important rankings is actually the level of government debt.
By looking at level of gross government debt as a percentage of GDP, it can indicate how able a country is to pay back debts without incurring further debt.
Basically the lower the debt-to-GDP ratio the better.

Take a look to see who made the top 17 and who beat Greece for the top spot

17. Iceland – 90.2%. Prior to the credit crisis in 2007, government debt was a modest 27% of GDP. Eight years on and the country is still dealing with the collapse of the banking system.

16. Barbados – 92.0%. The tax haven nation is the wealthiest and most developed country in the Eastern Caribbean but its growth prospects look weak due to austerity measures to combat the effects of the credit crisis eight years ago.

15. France – 93.9%. The eurozone’s second-biggest economy has been recovering “in fits and starts,” says country’s statistical agency. But this month it put out some good news — PMI services came in better than expected and retail sales are rising.

14. Spain – 93.9%. S&P is confident that Spain’s buoyant growth prospects and labour market reforms will boost its outlook. In the second quarter, Spain’s economy grew 3.1% year-on-year.

13. Cape Verde – 95.0%. The island nation is a service-orientated economy and suffers from a poor natural resource base. This means it has to import 82% of its food, leading to vulnerability to market fluctuations.

12. Belgium – 99.8%. The country is known as “the sick man of Europe” as although the government managed to reduce the budget deficit from a peak of 6% of GDP in 2009 to 3.2% — its debt is still incredibly high.

11. Singapore – 103.8%. It’s one of the wealthiest countries in the world but the island nation suffers from high debt. The government is now trying to find new ways to grow the economy and raise productivity.

10. United States – 104.5%. The US is on the cusp of raising interest rates for the first time in seven years. However, some analysts warn that this could trigger another financial crisis due to the hike in repayments people will face in paying back debt.

9. Bhutan – 110.7%. The small Asian economy is closely linked to India and depends heavily on it for financial assistance and foreign labourers for infrastructure.

8. Cyprus – 112.0%. The country’s excessive exposure to Greece hit it hard when the European sovereign debt crisis rippled across the world in 2010. Like Greece, it had to be bailed out by international creditors and enforce capital controls and austerity measures to get funding.

7. Ireland – 122.8%. The country exited its bailout programme two years’ ago but still faces a huge debt pile. But it’s on the right track. Ireland has already had success in refinancing a large amount of banking-related debt.

6. Portugal – 128.8%. Portugal exited its own bailout programme in the middle of 2014. However, GDP was still 7.8% lower than it was at the end of 2007.

5. Italy – 132.5%. The country’s proportion of debt to GDP is the second highest in the Eurozone. It spiked earlier this year because the Treasury increased its available liquidity.

4. Jamaica – 138.9%. The services industry accounts for 80% of GDP but high crime, corruption, and large-scale unemployment drag the country’s growth down. The International Monetary Fund said Jamaica has to reform its tax system amongst other things.

3. Lebanon – 139.7%. The country used to be a tourist destination but war against Syria and domestic political turmoil has led to a lack of an official budget for months.

2. Greece – 173.8%. The country has taken over €320 billion worth of bailout cash and it’s looking increasingly impossible to pay it all back – especially since it has had to implement painful austerity measures to get its loans. But it’s surprisingly not the worse country in the world for government debt.

1. Japan – 243.2%. The country is in a troubling spot. Its economy is growing very slowly and now the central bank has implemented negative interest rates.

MPIG comment:
It's a real surprise that Greece is not on the first spot where a traditional strong country like Japan taking the first spot. Anyone of you have guess on this? We know Japan is not having a good time lately but we don't expect them on the first spot. 

And to be relieve, Malaysia is not among the top 17. Thought we don't know about how transparency and how accuracy the data is.

A country debt is closely relate to jobs, economy, happiness of the population, growth etc... So you can expect those in the list is having not a good time at the moment.