FIGS 1: World's highly indebted countries

There are several indicators to see a country's indebtedness and fiscally irresponsible governments (FIGs). Foremost of them is total external debt stock, measured in billions of US$. Among the developing world, Brazil tops, with $235.4 billion in 2003. Another indicator, expressed in percentage, is the share of external debt stock to a country's exports of goods and services, including remittances by its workers abroad. Table below shows the world's 15 most indebted country using the second indicator.

First column is country name, second column is total external debt stock (in $ Billion), and third is total external debt stock as % of its exports of goods and services:

1. Burundi, $1.31B, 3,051% (!)
2. Sao Tome and Principe, $0.34 B, 1,773%
3, Liberia, 2.57, 1,522%
4. Sierra Leone, 1.61, 1,5152%
5. Cent. African Rep., 1.33, 1,061%
6. Rwanda, 1.54, 974%
7. Congo Dem. Rep. 11.17 , 923%
8. Guinea Bissau 1.54, 891%
9. Malawi 3.13, 660%
10. Ethiopia, 7.15, 621%
11. Lao PDR, 2.85, 611%
12. Sudan, 17.50, 561%
13. Eritrea, 0.64, 543%
14. Niger, 2.12, 542%
15. Zambia, 6.42, 529%

(source: WB, Global Development Finance (GDF) 2005)

In terms of absolute amount of foreign debt, the following are the most indebted developing countries (column 2 is debt in $ Billion, column 3 is debt as % of exports of goods and services), 2003:

1. Brazil, $235.4B, 299%
2. China, 193.7, 48%
3. Russia, 175.3, 128%
4. Argentina, 168.2, 473%
5. Turkey, 145.7, 232%
6. Mexico, 140.0, 74%
7. Indonesia, 134.4, 176%
8. India, 113.5, 120%
9. Poland, 95.2, 150%
10. Philippines, 62.7, 141%
11. Thailand, 51.8, 59%
12. Malaysia, 49.1, 44%
13. Hungary, 45.8, 102%
14. Chile, 43.2, 174%
15. Pakistan, 36.3, 232%

(source: WB, GDF 2005)