Eurozone debt web: Who owes what to whom?

 

The circle below shows the gross external, or foreign, debt of some of the main players in the eurozone as well as other big world economies. The arrows show how much money is owed by each country to banks in other nations. The arrows point from the debtor to the creditor and are proportional to the money owed as of the end of June 2011. The colours attributed to countries are a rough guide to how much trouble each economy is in.

• FRANCE: €41.4 bn
• SPAIN
• PORTUGAL: €7.5 bn
• ITALY: €2.8 bn
• IRELAND
• GREECE
• JAPAN
• GERMANY: €15.9 bn
• UK: €9.4 bn
• US: €6.2 bn

GREECE

GDP: €0.2 tnForeign debt: €0.4 tn

€38,073Foreign debt per person

252%Foreign debt to GDP

166%Govt debt to GDP

Risk Status:HIGH

Greece is heavily indebted to eurozone countries and is one of three eurozone countries to have received a bail-out. Although the Greek economy is small and direct damage of it defaulting on its debts might be absorbed by the eurozone, the big fear is "contagion" - or that a Greek default could trigger a financial catastrophe for other, much bigger economies, such as Italy.

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Source: Bank for International Settlements, IMF, World Bank, UN Population Division

Notes on the data: The Bank for International Settlements data, represented by the proportional arrows, shows what banks in one country are owed by debtors - both government and private - in another country. It does not include non-bank debts. Only key eurozone debtors and their top creditors are shown. Although China is known to hold European debt, no comprehensive figures are available.

GDP figures are the latest complete 2010 figures from the IMF. The percentage of gross government debt to GDP is also the latest IMF calculation.

Overall gross external (or foreign) debt is taken from the latest 2011 World Bank/IMF figures and includes all debt owed overseas, including that owed by governments, monetary authorities, banks and companies. Gross external debt per head of population is calculated using the latest medium variant population figures from the UN Population Division.

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