Posted on 06/11/2010 6:46:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
New Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, seeking to lay the groundwork for a future sales tax rise, warned on Friday that the country risked defaulting on its borrowing if it failed to rein in its massive public debt.
Kan, who took over the nation's top job after his unpopular predecessor quit abruptly last week, has made tackling a public debt that is already twice the size of Japan's GDP a top priority amid market concerns about sovereign debt risk.
"We cannot sustain public finance that overly relies on issuing bonds," Kan told parliament in his first policy speech.
"As we can see in the euro zone confusion that started from Greece, there is a risk of default if the growing public debt is neglected and if trust is lost in the bond market."
Kan spoke hours after his banking minister Shizuka Kamei -- an advocate of big spending, said he would quit the cabinet, improving the chances Kan can forge ahead with fiscal reform.
The departure of the outspoken Kamei, sparked by a spat over a controversial bill to roll back postal privatization, removes one obstacle, but how aggressively Kan can implement fiscal reforms will depend on the results of an upper house election, likely on July 11.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Rank | Country | % of GDP[1] | Date |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Zimbabwe | 304.30 | 2009 est. |
2 | Japan | 192.10 | 2009 est. |
3 | Saint Kitts and Nevis | 185.00 | 2009 est. |
4 | Lebanon | 156.00 | 2009 est. |
5 | Jamaica | 131.70 | 2009 est. |
6 | Singapore | 117.60 | 2009 est. |
7 | Italy | 115.80 | 2009 [1] |
8 | Greece | 115.10 | 2009 [2] [3] |
9 | Sudan | 104.50 | 2009 est. |
10 | Belgium | 96.70 | 2009 [4] |
11 | Iceland | 95.10 | 2009 est. |
12 | USA | 92.56 | 2010 est.[5] |
13 | Nicaragua | 87.00 | 2009 est. |
14 | Sri Lanka | 82.90 | 2009 est. |
15 | Egypt | 79.80 | 2009 est. |
16 | France | 79.70 | 2009 est. |
17 | Hungary | 78.00 | 2009 est. |
18 | Israel | 78.00 | 2009 est. |
19 | Germany | 77.20 | 2009 est. |
20 | Portugal | 75.20 | 2009 est. |
21 | Canada | 72.30 | 2009 est. |
22 | Jordan | 69.90 | 2009 est. |
23 | United Kingdom | 68.50 | 2009 est. |
24 | Ghana | 67.50 | 2009 est. |
25 | Malta | 67.00 | 2009 est. |
26 | Austria | 66.50 | 2009 est. |
27 | Cote d'Ivoire | 63.80 | 2009 est. |
28 | Ireland | 63.70 | 2009 est. |
29 | Netherlands | 62.20 | 2009 est. |
30 | Croatia | 61.00 | 2009 est. |
31 | Norway | 60.20 | 2009 est. |
32 | India | 59.60 | 2009 est. |
33 | Philippines | 58.70 | 2009 est. |
34 | Uruguay | 58.70 | 2009 est. |
35 | Mauritius | 58.30 | 2009 est. |
36 | Malawi | 58.00 | 2009 est. |
37 | Bhutan | 57.80 | 2009 |
38 | World | 56.00 | 2009 est. |
39 | El Salvador | 55.40 | 2009 est. |
40 | Albania | 54.90 | 2009 est. |
41 | Kenya | 54.10 | 2009 est. |
42 | Morocco | 54.10 | 2009 est. |
44 | Cyprus | 52.40 | 2009 est. |
45 | Vietnam | 52.30 | 2009 est. |
46 | Spain | 50.00 | 2009 est. |
47 | Panama | 49.50 | 2009 est. |
48 | Costa Rica | 49.30 | 2009 est. |
49 | Argentina | 49.10 | 2009 est. |
50 | Turkey | 48.50 | 2009 est. |
51 | Malaysia | 47.80 | 2009 est. |
52 | Poland | 47.50 | 2009 est. |
53 | United Arab Emirates | 47.20 | 2009 est. |
54 | Tunisia | 47.20 | 2009 est. |
55 | Brazil | 46.80 | 2009 est. |
56 | Aruba | 46.30 | 2005 |
57 | Colombia | 46.10 | 2009 est. |
58 | Thailand | 45.90 | 2009 est. |
59 | Pakistan | 45.30 | 2009 est. |
60 | Bolivia | 44.00 | 2009 est. |
61 | Seychelles | 43.90 | 2009 est. |
62 | Switzerland | 43.50 | 2009 est. |
63 | Sweden | 43.20 | 2009 est. |
64 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 43.00 | 2009 est. |
65 | Dominican Republic | 41.50 | 2009 est. |
66 | Finland | 41.40 | 2009 est. |
67 | Yemen | 39.60 | 2009 est. |
68 | Denmark | 38.50 | 2009 est. |
69 | Bangladesh | 38.20 | 2009 est. |
70 | Montenegro | 38.00 | 2006 |
71 | Mexico | 37.70 | 2009 est. |
72 | Slovakia | 37.10 | 2009 est. |
73 | South Africa | 35.70 | 2009 est. |
74 | Cuba | 34.80 | 2009 est. |
75 | Gabon | 34.70 | 2009 est. |
76 | Slovenia | 34.00 | 2009 est. |
77 | Papua New Guinea | 33.70 | 2009 est. |
78 | Taiwan | 33.50 | 2009 est. |
79 | Czech Republic | 32.80 | 2009 est. |
80 | Guatemala | 32.70 | 2009 est. |
81 | Latvia | 32.50 | 2009 est. |
82 | Macedonia | 32.40 | 2009 est. |
83 | Syria | 32.30 | 2009 est. |
84 | Ethiopia | 31.70 | 2009 est. |
85 | Zambia | 31.50 | 2009 est. |
86 | Moldova | 31.30 | 2009 est. |
87 | Serbia | 31.30 | 2009 est. |
88 | Bahrain | 30.10 | 2009 est. |
89 | Ukraine | 30.00 | 2009 est. |
90 | Indonesia | 29.80 | 2009 est. |
91 | New Zealand | 29.30 | 2009 est. |
92 | Korea, South | 28.00 | 2009 est. |
93 | Trinidad and Tobago | 26.70 | 2009 est. |
94 | Mozambique | 26.10 | 2009 est. |
95 | Peru | 26.10 | 2009 est. |
96 | Tanzania | 24.80 | 2009 est. |
97 | Honduras | 24.30 | 2009 est. |
98 | Paraguay | 24.00 | 2009 est. |
99 | Senegal | 24.00 | 2009 est. |
100 | Lithuania | 20.90 | 2009 est. |
101 | Saudi Arabia | 20.30 | 2009 est. |
102 | Ecuador | 20.20 | November 2009 est. |
103 | Romania | 20.00 | 2009 est. |
104 | Iran | 19.40 | 2009 est. |
105 | Venezuela | 19.40 | 2009 est. |
106 | Uganda | 19.30 | 2009 est. |
107 | Namibia | 19.10 | 2009 est. |
108 | Australia | 18.60 | 2009 est. |
109 | China | 18.20 | 2009 est. |
110 | Hong Kong | 18.10 | 2009 est. |
111 | Botswana | 17.90 | 2009 est. |
112 | Nigeria | 17.80 | 2009 est. |
113 | Angola | 16.80 | 2009 est. |
114 | Gibraltar | 15.50 | 2006 est. |
115 | Bulgaria | 14.80 | 2009 [6] [7] |
116 | Luxembourg | 14.50 | 2009 est. |
117 | Cameroon | 14.30 | 2009 est. |
118 | Kazakhstan | 14.00 | 2009 est. |
119 | Uzbekistan | 11.70 | 2009 est. |
120 | Algeria | 10.70 | 2009 est. |
121 | Chile | 9.00 | 2009 est. |
122 | Kuwait | 8.30 | 2009 est. |
123 | Estonia | 7.50 | 2009 est. |
124 | Qatar | 7.10 | 2009 est. |
125 | Russia | 6.90 | 2009 est. |
126 | Libya | 6.50 | 2009 est. |
127 | Wallis and Futuna | 5.60 | 2004 est. |
128 | Azerbaijan | 4.60 | 2009 est. |
129 | Oman | 2.80 | 2009 est. |
130 | Equatorial Guinea | 1.10 | 2009 est. |
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Thanks for the posting that useful information on public debt by country. I've looked quite a bit at U.S. debt but it's useful to look at the debt of other countries in order to get some perspective. Though the U.S. debt level is just under half of Japan's, is still discomforting that we are at number 12. In addition, the following graph shows the long-run budget projections from the most recent U.S. Budget:
The actual numbers and sources for this graph can be found at this link. As can be seen, the debt held by the public to projected to rise to 829.7 percent of GDP by 2085. This is over seven times the prior high of 108.7 percent of GDP reached in 1946, at the end of World War II. In addition, it is over double the level projected in the prior budget. The projections for this year and last year are the purple and green lines in the above graph.
It is important to note that these are projections based on current law, not predictions of what will actually happen. It is likely that there will be a financial crisis, policy changes, and/or other changes well before the debt reaches such historically high levels. Still, the projections show that current trends cannot continue.
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