All countries in the world lend and borrow money to each others. There has been a lot of talk about the US public debt lately. About 12% of it is owned by foreign governments, notably Japan, China and the UK, and another 9% to 12% by foreign companies and individuals. But despite having a public debt currently standing at 124% of GDP, the US government also lends to other countries. Every country lends and borrows. I wanted to know which countries were net creditors and net debtors in the grander scheme of things, so I looked up the Net International Investment Position (NIIP). The NIIP is the difference between the external financial assets and liabilities of a country. External debt of a country includes government debt and private debt. A positive NIIP value indicates that a nation is a creditor nation, while a negative value indicates that it is a debtor nation.
I wanted to go beyond this and know how much these credits and debts represented in per capita terms. Surprisingly there was virtually no data about this on the Internet. Wikipedia has a page with the NIIP per capita by only for 30 countries and with outdated data for 2014 to 2016. So I calculated the Net International Investment Position (NIIP) per capita for over 90 countries and created a map to visualise the data. Germanic countries are the main creditors in Europe. Other major creditors are Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, and Canada. The world's biggest debtor per capita are Greece, Ireland and the USA.
It's interesting to compare this to the Net GDP per capita (GDP - public debt) that I explained last month. Singapore and Japan have huge public debts, but most of it is domestically owned, so they are no indebted to other countries. In contrast the US and Greek debts are essentially owned by foreigners. Ireland is a very special case as it a huge debtor country, but it still manages to have one of the highest net GDP per capita in the world.
I wanted to go beyond this and know how much these credits and debts represented in per capita terms. Surprisingly there was virtually no data about this on the Internet. Wikipedia has a page with the NIIP per capita by only for 30 countries and with outdated data for 2014 to 2016. So I calculated the Net International Investment Position (NIIP) per capita for over 90 countries and created a map to visualise the data. Germanic countries are the main creditors in Europe. Other major creditors are Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, and Canada. The world's biggest debtor per capita are Greece, Ireland and the USA.
It's interesting to compare this to the Net GDP per capita (GDP - public debt) that I explained last month. Singapore and Japan have huge public debts, but most of it is domestically owned, so they are no indebted to other countries. In contrast the US and Greek debts are essentially owned by foreigners. Ireland is a very special case as it a huge debtor country, but it still manages to have one of the highest net GDP per capita in the world.
| Country | NIIP (USD) | Population (Million) | NIIP Per Capita (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Norway | 1611208 | 5.54 | 290858 |
| Andorra | 21416 | 0.079 | 271114 |
| Hong Kong | 1796920 | 7.49 | 239930 |
| Singapore | 873348 | 5.92 | 147561 |
| Switzerland | 1082270 | 8.87 | 122084 |
| Taiwan | 1371420 | 23.43 | 58539 |
| Luxembourg | 34551 | 0.67 | 51567 |
| Malta | 24387 | 0.54 | 45166 |
| Germany | 3707527 | 83.29 | 44523 |
| Iceland | 13322 | 0.39 | 34159 |
| Canada | 1381817 | 40.53 | 34105 |
| Belgium | 390828 | 11.7 | 33419 |
| Sweden | 331662 | 10.6 | 31384 |
| Netherlands | 532488 | 17.68 | 30120 |
| Japan | 3586621 | 123.9 | 28951 |
| Kuwait | 120063 | 4.42 | 27177 |
| Israel | 242701 | 9.84 | 24663 |
| Denmark | 135827 | 5.93 | 22910 |
| Saudi Arabia | 744164 | 36.95 | 20145 |
| South Korea | 977824 | 51.75 | 18890 |
| Austria | 116431 | 9.07 | 12841 |
| Finland | 56409 | 5.56 | 10153 |
| Italy | 296936 | 58.99 | 5035 |
| Russia | 486585 | 144.4 | 3370 |
| China (mainland) | 3181704 | 1409.67 | 2257 |
| Slovenia | 4660 | 2.11 | 2209 |
| South Africa | 111916 | 60.4 | 1853 |
| Argentina | 75882 | 45.81 | 1657 |
| Azerbaijan | 12600000 | 10.2 | 1236 |
| Algeria | 50000 | 44.18 | 1132 |
| Thailand | 37455 | 71.6 | 523 |
| Uzbekistan | 16326 | 36.8 | 444 |
| Lithuania | 1112 | 2.86 | 389 |
| India | -351091 | 1441.0 | -244 |
| Malaysia | -9482 | 34.3 | -277 |
| Nigeria | -71484 | 223.8 | -319 |
| Ukraine | -15181 | 36.74 | -413 |
| Angola | -16623 | 36.68 | -453 |
| Bangladesh | -86746 | 173.7 | -499 |
| Philippines | -59236 | 117.3 | -505 |
| Pakistan | -128962 | 240.5 | -536 |
| Uganda | -28879 | 48.58 | -595 |
| Bulgaria | -5343 | 6.38 | -837 |
| Bolivia | -11201 | 12.08 | -927 |
| Indonesia | -273985 | 277.5 | -987 |
| Zambia | -28516 | 20.6 | -1384 |
| Sudan | -85180 | 48.11 | -1771 |
| Morocco | -79730000 | 39.1 | -2039 |
| Mozambique | -69977 | 33.89 | -2064 |
| Belarus | -19219 | 9.2 | -2089 |
| Cambodia | -35867 | 16.95 | -2117 |
| Bosnia & Herzegovina | -6872 | 3.23 | -2128 |
| Moldova | -5790000 | 2.6 | -2225 |
| Egypt | -277136 | 113.7 | -2438 |
| Kazakhstan | -49791 | 19.86 | -2507 |
| Nicaragua | -17964 | 6.98 | -2575 |
| Czech Republic | -29074 | 10.87 | -2676 |
| Peru | -101848 | 34.49 | -2954 |
| Chile | -64245 | 19.49 | -3296 |
| Colombia | -185040 | 52.21 | -3545 |
| Turkey | -318218 | 85.8 | -3710 |
| Albania | -11468 | 2.613 | -4389 |
| Armenia | -12218 | 2.78 | -4394 |
| Brazil | -980904 | 216.4 | -4532 |
| Jordan | -50170000 | 11.0 | -4561 |
| Mexico | -636520 | 129.1 | -4932 |
| Tunisia | -63678 | 12.5 | -5094 |
| Bhutan | -4035 | 0.787 | -5127 |
| Latvia | -9861 | 1.88 | -5244 |
| Croatia | -20901 | 3.84 | -5444 |
| Estonia | -7982 | 1.33 | -6002 |
| Dominican Republic | -75064 | 11.33 | -6629 |
| Romania | -138238 | 19.89 | -6952 |
| Poland | -285180 | 37.75 | -7556 |
| Hungary | -74474 | 9.63 | -7734 |
| Costa Rica | -40539 | 5.22 | -7770 |
| Georgia | -29790000 | 3.7 | -8051 |
| Serbia | -55342 | 6.64 | -8336 |
| Lebanon | 58800000 | 6.8 | -8647 |
| France | -801354 | 65.63 | -12211 |
| Mongolia | -42853 | 3.43 | -12498 |
| Slovakia | -73393 | 5.43 | -13523 |
| Montenegro | -8482 | 0.62 | -13684 |
| United Kingdom | -1121667 | 67.98 | -16499 |
| Panama | -76574 | 4.47 | -17135 |
| Spain | -859317 | 47.62 | -18051 |
| Portugal | -197311 | 10.17 | -19404 |
| Australia | -560537 | 26.97 | -20783 |
| New Zealand | -119310 | 5.33 | -22386 |
| Cyprus | -30803 | 1.26 | -24445 |
| Greece | -340644 | 10.32 | -33008 |
| United States | -26230000 | 339.7 | -77220 |
| Ireland | -465463 | 5.33 | -87340 |
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