The Most Indebted Countries By Percentage Of GDP

When you take a look at the list of the most indebted countries, you would assume that the U.S. would be tops on the list. That would certainly be the case if you just looked at the total amount owed, however, a better measurement of a country's debt load is to compare it to their GDP. When you do that the U.S. still looks bad, but we are no where near as bad as Japan — who runs away with the top spot. Kathy Lien looks at these numbers, and discusses some possible implications, in her blog post below.

The Economist has a great image on which countries have the most debt as a percentage of GDP. Japan tops the list followed by Italy and the United States. Japan actually has 2x more debt than the U.S. which I find particularly scary and leads me to wonder if Japan could face a ratings downgrade.

Source: Economist

This post can also be viewed on kathylien.com.