Global debt continues to grow; detailed figures for Greece

McKinsey Global Institute this week reported that global debt continues to grow. Moroever, the group says that “all major economies today have higher levels of borrowing relative to GDP than they did in 2007. Global debt in these years has grown by $57 trillion, raising the ratio of debt to GDP by 17 percentage points.”

McKinsey says this facts raises “new risks to financial stability and may undermine global economic growth.”

“Government debt is unsustainably high in some countries. Since 2007, government debt has grown by $25 trillion. It will continue to rise in many countries, given current economic fundamentals. Some of this debt, incurred with the encouragement of world leaders to finance bailouts and stimulus programs, stems from the crisis. Debt also rose as a result of the recession and the weak recovery. For six of the most highly indebted countries, starting the process of deleveraging would require implausibly large increases in real-GDP growth or extremely deep fiscal adjustments. To reduce government debt, countries may need to consider new approaches, such as more extensive asset sales, one-time taxes on wealth, and more efficient debt-restructuring programs.

Eurogroup debt

In terms of debt in the eurozone, according to Deutsche Bank, total state debt in the euro area is 9.473 trillion euros, or 94% of GDP. Greece has the highest percentage of debt, at 176% of GDP, translating into 300 billion euros, whereas the same figure was 107.2% in 2007. Italy comes in second with 131.8%, followed by Portugal at 127%. Estonia sports the lowest debt to GDP ration at 10.5%.

An Olympus-sized mountain of debt for Greece

According to figures tabled by Greece’s Public Debt Management Agency in Parliament during 2014, between 2021 and 2030 the Greek state’s debts reach 201.05 billion euros, out of a total of 291 billion euros in overall obligations between 2015 – 2030. The interest payments alone between 2021 and 2030 will amount to 114.45 billion euros.