The Corona pandemic hit has caused Belgium’s national debt to rise nearly half as fast anywhere else.
Government spending to combat the Coronavirus pandemic increased global sovereign debt by 17 percent last year to $ 62.5 trillion. This emerged from research conducted by asset manager Janus Henderson.
The per capita national debt per global citizen is now US $ 13,050. That’s four times what it was in 1995. This year it is expected to add an additional $ 768 per person, or $ 4000 billion.
It is striking that not only does Belgium have a high national debt, but it has also increased faster than the rest of the world. In dollar terms, our country’s government debt has grown by 23 percent to $ 646 billion. The national debt per citizen of Belgium is US $ 55,765, which is more than four times the global average.
Research shows that in the past year, in the fight against the Corona pandemic, governments have borrowed an amount that they would normally borrow in just eight years. Debt growth alone has reached one-seventh of global GDP, more than was needed to support the economy after the financial crisis.
Sweden and Switzerland
In absolute terms, the US, China and Japan accounted for half of the new government bonds in 2020. With a budget deficit of around 20 per cent of GDP, the UK went to the deepest red point in relative terms.
The countries that borrowed little compared to the rest of the world are Switzerland, Sweden and Taiwan. In the latter country, the economy grew so strongly again in 2020 that the debt did not move in relation to GDP.
