Global public debt soars $11 trillion in 2016


The global public debt is expected to skyrocket by $10.7 trillion and reach $62.7 trillion by the end of 2016. The recession, which has been ongoing since the 2008 global financial crisis continues to be a problem in many countries. This situation pushed central banks to unorthodox methods in their monetary policies on one hand, and on the other, reforms that support domestic consumption and investments.The central banks of developed countries launched monetary expansion policies and switched to negative interest rate policies. The recession's effects on China's exports led the fastest-growing developing nation to amend its model and increase its domestic consumption to maintain economic growth.The decline in global demand also led to volatility in commodity prices and the currencies of developing countries. Additionally, reforms, which were implemented in many developing countries to support the rise of domestic consumption and investments, caused a boom in public debt.According to data Anadolu Agency (AA) compiled from International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections, global gross public debt will reach $62.7 trillion and the gross world product (GWP) will reach $74.52 trillion by the end of 2016. As such, the global gross public debt will correspond to 84.1 percent of the GWP at the end of the year. The IMF's financial surveillance report for October 2016 revealed that global public debt stood at $52 trillion at the end of 2015, corresponding to 85 percent of the GWP. This means global public debt will soar by $10.7 trillion this year.84 percent of global public debt from 11 countriesThe IMF's projections for 181 countries reveal that the public debt of 11 countries will exceed $1 trillion at the end of 2016. The U.S. tops the list of public debt with $20.1 trillion, followed by Japan, China and Italy with $11.8 trillion, $5.3 trillion and $ 2.5 trillion respectively. France, Germany and the U.K. have public debts of $2.4 trillion each, while the public debts of India, Canada/Brazil and Spain stand at $1.5 trillion, $1.4 trillion and $1.3 trillion, respectively. The total public debts of these 11 countries will reach $52.4 trillion by the end of the year, corresponding to 83.6 percent of global public debt.Public debts of 17 countries exceed their GDPsThe IMF's estimates for the end of 2016 disclosed that the public debt of 17 countries will exceed their gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of the year. The ratio of public debt to GDP will be highest in Japan at 250.4 percent, followed by Greece and Lebanon with 183.4 percent and 143.9 percent, respectively.The other countries where the public debt is expected to surpass the GDP are Italy, Portugal, Eritrea, Cape Verde, Jamaica, Mozambique, the U.S., Cyprus, Singapore, Belgium, Barbados, Bhutan, Libya and Spain.Turkey ranks 39thIt is expected that Turkey's ratio of public debt to GDP will be 31.7 percent at the end of 2016, ranking the country 39th among 181 countries. Among 30 countries with the highest public debts, Turkey is ranked third-best. It is expected that the country's public debt will be actualized at $233 billion and GDP at $735.7 billion at the end of 2016.