Who holds the world’s sovereign debt?

Jeff Desjardins at Visual Capitalist broke down how much of the world’s sovereign debt each country holds.

The biggest chunk of the $59.7 trillion in debt belongs to the US, which holds 29.05% of all of it. Europe has a high frequency of large debts, with 7 of the top 15 countries coming from the continent, Desjardins noted.

Global Financial System – Sustainable Development

Desjardins also notes an interesting, and possibly troubling, fact about the second-largest debt holder Japan.
“Japan makes up only 6.18% of total economic production, but has amounted 19.99% of global debt,” he wrote.
The data comes from the IMF and does not include household or corporate debt. Additionally, the graph shows the debt to GDP ratio for each country based on the shade of the piece. All debt was converted to USD for the graph.

 

This article is published in collaboration with Business Insider. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

 Author: Bob Bryan is a Finance and Markets Intern for Business Insider. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with degrees in Journalism and Political Science.

Image: An employee counts Indian rupee currency notes inside a private money exchange office in New Delhi. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi 

Posted by Bob Bryan – 09:24All opinions expressed are those of the author. The World Economic Forum Blog is an independent and neutral platform dedicated to generating debate around the key topics that shape global, regional and industry agendas.

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