Global credit markets continue to dominate the headlines and keep equity markets on edge. Below we take a look at 37 widely followed countries and how sovereign debt compares to each country's respective economic output. On average, the world's debt equates to about 58% of GDP; excluding Japan the world has borrowed about 54% of GDP.
From a style perspective, "emerging" economies have borrowed against 40% of GDP, while the average for developed nations is 74%. Yields on 10y notes are about the same across the board, with Pakistan, Venezuela, and Greece yielding 14.3%, 13.8% and 12.3% respectively.
We further summarized the debt ratings from Moody's, Fitch and S&P using a scale ranging from one to five, where a five is the firm's highest possible rating. The developed world averages the highest possible score of five; of those 19 countries only four received a score lower than 5 (Spain is not one of them). The highest rated emerging economy is China with a consensus rating of 4.7.