4 ms·

The situation in Japan is dire. Their debt is more than double gdp.

• JackFr 12y ago
  The situation in Japan is troubling, but it is not as simple as reducing it to a debt/GDP ratio. Great Britain had a debt/GDP ratio of > 250% in the 1820's.
• tonyedgecombe 12y ago
  Isn't most of the government debt held by the population of Japan? Presumably this deters the government from inflating it away.
  • ucho 12y ago
    That level of debt, even when most of it is internal, can't be maintained when Japan is on edge of demographic catastrophe. Whats worse - recent attempts at reducing budget deficit by raising VAT ended up with recession: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abenomics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abenomics . edit: A bit longer article: http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-economy-disaster-2013-5 http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-economy-disaster-2013-5 - it might be a bit old but nothing really changed.
    • tonyedgecombe 12y ago
      I'm not sure I'd call the demographic changes a catastrophe, that seems a little dramatic. The VAT changes weren't very well handled, if you know the sales tax is going up substantially then you will bring forward any planned purchases. What Japan really needs to do is modernise the workplace especially in terms of gender equality but also just moving away from so much paper.