Wealthy Countries Continue to Struggle with High External Debt to GDP Ratio's

According to the World Bank, it appears that while some developing countries managed to balance their checkbooks despite the worldwide economic downturn, the struggle continues for wealthier countries to decrease their debt. In the United States, our external debt to GDP ratio has increased from 84.1% in 2006, to 100.2% in 2012. In comparison, Portugal's external debt to GDP ratio is the highest among all the countries measured. From 2006 to 2012, their debt ratio increased from 189.0% to 228.9%. Greece has the second highest ratio but endured the largest increase in the debt ratio. In 2006, the World Bank estimated that their debt ratio stood at 125.8%. By 2012, it exploded by more than 80% to 206.4%. France has the third highest debt ratio, 190.8%, followed by Germany at 170.4%, Spain at 169.7%, Italy at 118.9%, and then the United States at 100.2%.
     
Interestingly, despite the struggles of developed countries to stabilize their debt, developing countries continue to enjoy low levels of external debt to GDP ratios. China's ratio stood at 9.5%, followed by 17.2% for Brazil, 18% for India, 27% for Mexico, 29.3% for Russia, and 41.3% for Turkey.