Many nations worldwide own the most foreign debt and are trying to manage their economies with it. World of Statistics has released a report regarding this topic on Twitter titled “Countries with the Highest Debt in 2023”. This report shows the United States of America topping the list with a debt amounting to $33,229 (Rs 27,73,858). The USA is followed by the countries China: $14,692 (Rs 12,26,444), Japan: $10,797 (Rs 9,01,301) and the United Kingdom: $3,469 (Rs 2,89,581). Apart from these countries, France: $3,354 (Rs 2,79,982). The subsequent countries in the list are Italy: $3,141 (Rs 262201), India: $3,057 (Rs 255189), Germany: $2,919 (Rs 2,43,669), Canada: $2,253 (Rs 1,88,073) and Brazil: $1,873 (Rs 1,56,352).

India’s Position

India is in 7th position among the countries with the highest debt in 2023.

Other nations

Following Brazil, Spain: $1,697 (Rs 1,41,660), Mexico: $955 (Rs 79,720), South Korea: $928 (Rs 77466), Australia: $876 (Rs 73,125) and Singapore $835 (Rs 69,703).

Report of the CIA World Factbook

The USA also occupied the first position in the report titled ‘The Countries With The Most Foreign Debt’ released by the CIA World Factbook in 2019. The report mentions that the USA amounted to 17.91 trillion dollars (Rs 17,91,000 crores) in debt in 2019. The next in the line was the United Kingdom, racking up 8.13 trillion dollars (Rs 8,13,000 crores). It was followed by France owing 5.36 trillion dollars (Rs 5,36,000 crores).

Smaller countries like Luxembourg, Netherlands and Belgium also occupied a place on this list. It was because the banking sector in these countries purchased a lot of foreign debt liabilities and the countries’ social systems spent a lot on their citizens. Other smaller countries, especially the tiny island nations and many African countries have the least foreign debt.

Foreign Debt

As per Investopedia, foreign debt is money borrowed by a government, corporation or private household from another country’s government or private lenders. Foreign debt has risen steadily in recent decades, with unwelcome side effects in some borrowing countries, especially developing economies.