The national debt of countries represents how much money the government of that country owes. Like a household budget, national debt gets larger when a government spends more than it takes in. This can continue for years, or even decades. This budget deficit is the total amount of this debt that has grown over time, with interest charged adding significantly to the amount owed by the government.
The amount owed varies greatly with the amount of money a country generates, its population and how much its government spends. In Germany, the national debt is $1.79 trillion. This represents 62.6 percent of Germany’s gross domestic product, or GDP. In The U.K. the national debt is $42.2 trillion. This is 47.2 percent of the GDP of the U.K.
In Russia, the national debt is $151.3 billion. This is 6.8 percent of the Russian GDP. Italy owes a national debt of $1.89 trillion, or 103.7 percent of the Italian GDP. The national debt of France is $1.40 trillion. This is 67 percent of France’s GDP.
One of the highest levels of national debt relative to the country’s GDP can be found in Japan. The Japanese national debt is $7.47 trillion. This is 170.4 percent of the Japanese GDP. India has a national debt of $2.55 trillion. This debt is 78 percent of the GDP of India. Zimbabwe has a national debt of $472.51 billion. This level of national debt is 241.2 percent of Zimbabwe’s GDP.
In the Americas, The United States has a national debt of 8.68 trillion. In the U.S., this is 60.8 percent of the American GDP. The Canadian national debt is $814.26 billion. In Canada, the national debt is 62.3 percent of the GDP. In South America, Argentina has a national debt of $293.56 billion. The Argentinean national debt is 51 percent of the GDP of Argentina.
The gross domestic product of a country is the market value of all of the products and services that a country produces in one year. This includes spending that is done by the citizens of the country and by the government of that country. It includes the value of items produced within the county and exported elsewhere, but it does not include the value of any imported items. The GDP is the primary way to calculate the size and status of the economy of a country as a whole. It is calculated quarterly as well as yearly.
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Is GDP calculated the same way in all these countries? And is it really an accurate measurement of the country’s production and thus of its ability to retire its debt?
No, GDP is not an accurate measurement of production. If it was then the US would have a much lower GDP. Government spending and private consumption is used to calculate GDP. So the more money the government spends the higher your GDP. And since the US spends billions, now trillions, more than it has I think GDP becomes misleading.
Your listed value for Canada is 332 billion higher than our national debt clock says.
We’re actually at 482 billion total.
We were at 700 billion-ish back in 1998 or thereabouts I think.
That puts us at 37%. Not bad compared to the rest of G8.
As others have pointed out, the numbers in this chart are way off so don’t put any stock in it.
The debts seems off at least for the US. Every search I do for US National debt comes out to a little under 12 trillion.
Even the CIA factbook, which apparently this website is getting its information, has the US debt at 12.25 trillion. The factbook also says the GDP is 14.29 GDP, for a debt/GDP of 85% instead of 60%.
If you are going to forge your data, please dont cite a source thats very easy to look up to see that you are simply bullshitting people.
That’s the point of the graphic, that the ability of a country to service its debt has little/nothing to do with that country’s actual production possibility frontier. It is simply a shifty method of allocating any wealth/capital in that country to work for the “creditors” instead of the citizenry.
Notice that none of those countries show a positive balance, at best they are servicing their debt at <5% their GDP. Who is receiving the payments made in service to these debts?
source CIA factbook.
Are those the same guys that gave us the ‘facts’ about Saddam Hussain’s WMD programme?
Or are they the same guys that choose to ignore the Geneva convention and tortured random Afghanies?
http://www.canadianeconomy.gc.ca/english/economy/
Source is the Canadian Government.
457 billion dollars as of 2008.
So what’s going on here?
What’s going on is that real value is being transmorified into debt by the monetary system. The System and Governments and the Debt and the Monetary System are all legal fictions of course. We have to step back from legal fictions to discover the reality that there is no debt and the only real thing that means anything is Human Beings and their actions.
Crazy thing is that Human Beings are killing and hurting and living in ‘poverty’ every day in defence of these legal fictions.
GDP is actually measured the same in every country although information is very spotty and may be part of an educated conjecture in most of the un-industrialized states (Namibia, Peru, basically all those counties not in North America, Europe, or Japan). I would like to point out to Ryan that, while the government *does* spend a lot, if it spent too much it would crowd out private investment and actually end up contracting GDP by causing a recession. I also just looked up the percentage of debt to GDP in the CIA world factbook and it gave me 60.8%, in line with what this graphic is giving us. All in all, I believe it’s important for Americans like myself to see this comparison and know that we are not the worst off, in the end what’s important is that a country keeps up an image of reliability to the world and investors will keep buying bonds of that country’s debt regardless of how much it already owes (just don’t turn out to be another Argentina).
Search for “CIA DEBT LIE”
the real ratio is 90%
These figures are not accurate for the following reasons:
- national debt should include future obligations of medicare and social security (which for the US is over 20 trillion)
- These debt figures do not take into account debts held at the state/provincial and municipal levels.
An accurate reading of US debt, for example, that included social security & medicare obligations and most importantly government debt at ALL levels of government, the debt is up past 40 or 50 trillion. Good luck with that!
I know this has nothing to do with illinois, but I am sending you this just to let you know.
Congress passed an act in 1961 which allows people to donate to the bureau of national debt. You can donate any amount of money to them.
the adress is:
Department of public debt
P.O Box 2188
Parkersburg,WV 260106-2188
If you don’t want to do the above then:
Can you please go to http://defeatthedebt.com/help-us/ and sign their petition? Also can you donate some money to them too? they are going to march around the white house to convince the president to pay down the debt.
You can do either both or none of the above listed.
Spread the word!
Send me your regards,
Thanks.
Dan – The Canadian federal debt is at 482, but here they account for the provincial debt as well.
These are statistics a couple of years ago. Just check the debt of the USA. It says it’s 8,68 trillion but at the moment it’s around 12 trillion. The debt rate in the UK is 68,8% and is going to 80% within 3-5 years because of the huge deficit.
What is going on here? On other web search, it showed India had nation debt of about 165billian and trouble was in amerecia where national debt was 11 trillian.