Markets

Visualizing the Snowball of Government Debt

Published

5 years ago

January 7, 2019

Jeff Desjardins

Visualizing the Snowball of Government Debt

Over the last five years, markets have pushed concerns about debt under the rug.

While economic growth and record-low interest rates have made it easy to service existing government debt, it’s also created a situation where government debt has grown in to over $63 trillion in absolute terms.

The global economic tide can change fast, and in the event of a recession or rapidly rising interest rates, debt levels could come back into the spotlight very quickly.

The Debt Snowball

Today’s visualization comes to us from HowMuch.net and it rolls the world’s countries into a “snowball” of government debt, colored and arranged by debt-to-GDP ratios. The data itself comes from the IMF’s most recent October 2018 update.

The structure of the visualization is apt, because debt can accumulate in an unsustainable way if governments are not proactive. This situation can create a vicious cycle, where mounting debt can start hampering growth, making the debt ultimately harder to pay off.

Here are the countries with the most debt on the books:

Rank	Country	Debt-to-GDP Ratio (2017)
#1	Japan	237.6%
#2	Greece	181.8%
#3	Lebanon	146.8%
#4	Italy	131.8%
#5	Portugal	125.7%
#6	Sudan	121.6%
#7	Singapore	111.1%
#8	United States	105.2%
#9	Belgium	103.4%
#10	Egypt	103.0%

Note: Small economies (GDP under $10 billion) are excluded in this table, such as Cabo Verde and Barbados

Japan and Greece are the most indebted countries in the world, with debt-to-GDP ratios of 237.6% and 181.8% respectively. Meanwhile, the United States sits in the #8 spot with a 105.2% ratio, and recent Treasury estimates putting the national debt at $22 trillion.

Light Snow

On the opposite spectrum, here are the 10 jurisdictions that have incurred less debt relative to the size of their economies:

Rank	Country	Debt-to-GDP Ratio (2017)
#1	Macao (SAR)	0.0%
#2	Hong Kong (SAR)	0.1%
#3	Brunei	2.8%
#4	Afghanistan	7.0%
#5	Estonia	9.0%
#6	Botswana	14.0%
#7	Russia	15.5%
#8	Saudi Arabia	17.2%
#9	DRC	18.1%
#10	Paraguay	19.5%

Note: Small economies (GDP under $10 billion) are excluded in this table, such as Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands

Macao and Hong Kong – both special administrative regions (SARs) in China – have virtually zero debt on the books, while the official country with the lowest debt is Brunei (2.8%).

Related Topics:GDP debt countries government debt

Up Next

Forecasting the Investing Habits of the Millennial Generation

Don't Miss

How Every Asset Class, Currency, and Sector Performed in 2018

Click for Comments

Markets

Ranked: The World’s Top Diamond Mining Countries, by Carats and Value

Who are the leaders in rough diamond production and how much is their diamond output worth?

Creator Program

Published

3 days ago

September 29, 2023

Pallavi Rao

A cropped chart showing the leaders in rough diamond mining and how much their diamond output is worth.

Ranked: World Diamond Mining By Country, Carat, and Value

Only 22 countries in the world engage in rough diamond production—also known as uncut, raw or natural diamonds—mining for them from deposits within their territories.

This chart, by Sam Parker illustrates the leaders in rough diamond production by weight and value. It uses data from Kimberly Process (an international certification organization) along with estimates by Dr. Ashok Damarupurshad, a precious metals and diamond specialist in South Africa.

Rough Diamond Production, By Weight

Russia takes the top spot as the world’s largest rough diamond producer, mining close to 42 million carats in 2022, well ahead of its peers.

ℹ️ Carat is the unit of measurement for the physical weight of diamonds. One carat equals 0.200 grams, which means it takes over 2,265 carats to equal 1 pound.

Russia’s large lead over second-place Botswana (24.8 million carats) and third-ranked Canada (16.2 million carats) indicates that the country’s diamond production is circumventing sanctions due to the difficulties in tracing a diamond’s origin.

Here’s a quick breakdown of rough diamond production in the world.

Rank	Country	Rough Diamond Production (Carats)
1	🇷🇺 Russia	41,923,910
2	🇧🇼 Botswana	24,752,967
3	🇨🇦 Canada	16,249,218
4	🇨🇩 DRC	9,908,998
5	🇿🇦 South Africa	9,660,233
6	🇦🇴 Angola	8,763,309
7	🇿🇼 Zimbabwe	4,461,450
8	🇳🇦 Namibia	2,054,227
9	🇱🇸 Lesotho	727,737
10	🇸🇱 Sierra Leone	688,970
11	🇹🇿 Tanzania	375,533
12	🇧🇷 Brazil	158,420
13	🇬🇳 Guinea	128,771
14	🇨🇫 Central African Republic	118,044
15	🇬🇾 Guyana	83,382
16	🇬🇭 Ghana	82,500
17	🇱🇷 Liberia	52,165
18	🇨🇮 Cote D'Ivoire	3,904
19	🇨🇬 Republic of Congo	3,534
20	🇨🇲 Cameroon	2,431
21	🇻🇪 Venezuela	1,665
22	🇲🇱 Mali	92
	Total	120,201,460

Note: South Africa’s figures are estimated.

As with most other resources, (oil, gold, uranium), rough diamond production is distributed unequally. The top 10 rough diamond producing countries by weight account for 99.2% of all rough diamonds mined in 2022.

Diamond Mining, by Country

However, higher carat mined doesn’t necessarily mean better value for the diamond. Other factors like the cut, color, and clarity also influence a diamond’s value.

Here’s a quick breakdown of diamond production by value (USD) in 2022.

Rank	Country	Rough Diamond Value (USD)
1	🇧🇼 Botswana	$4,975M
2	🇷🇺 Russia	$3,553M
3	🇦🇴 Angola	$1,965M
4	🇨🇦 Canada	$1,877M
5	🇿🇦 South Africa	$1,538M
6	🇳🇦 Namibia	$1,234M
7	🇿🇼 Zimbabwe	$424M
8	🇱🇸 Lesotho	$314M
9	🇸🇱 Sierra Leone	$143M
10	🇹🇿 Tanzania	$110M
11	🇨🇩 DRC	$65M
12	🇧🇷 Brazil	$30M
13	🇱🇷 Liberia	$18M
14	🇨🇫 Central African Republic	$15M
15	🇬🇾 Guyana	$14M
16	🇬🇳 Guinea	$6M
17	🇬🇭 Ghana	$3M
18	🇨🇲 Cameroon	$0.25M
19	🇨🇬 Republic of Congo	$0.20M
20	🇨🇮 Cote D'Ivoire	$0.16M
21	🇻🇪 Venezuela	$0.10M
22	🇲🇱 Mali	$0.06M
	Total	$16,290M

Note: South Africa’s figures are estimated. Furthermore, numbers have been rounded and may not sum to the total.

Thus, even though Botswana only produced 59% of Russia’s diamond weight in 2022, it had a trade value of nearly $5 billion, approximately 1.5 times higher than Russia’s for the same year.

Another example is Angola, which is ranked 6th in diamond production, but 3rd in diamond value.

Both countries (as well as South Africa, Canada, and Namibia) produce gem-quality rough diamonds versus countries like Russia and the DRC whose diamonds are produced mainly for industrial use.

Which Regions Produce the Most Diamonds in 2022?

Unsurprisingly, Africa is the largest rough diamond producing region, accounting for 51% of output by weight, and 66% by value.

Rank	Region	Share of Rough Diamond Production (%)	Share of Rough Diamond Value (%)
1	Africa	51.4%	66.4%
2	Europe	34.9%	32.9%
3	North America	13.5%	52.8%
4	South America	0.2%	2.4%

However diamond mining in Africa is a relatively recent phenomenon, fewer than 200 years old. Diamonds had been discovered—and prized—as far back as 2,000 years ago in India, later on spreading west to Egyptian pharaohs and the Roman Empire.

By the start of the 20th century, diamond production on a large scale took off: first in South Africa, and decades later in other African countries. In fact between 1889–1959, Africa produced 98% of the world’s diamonds.

And in the latter half of the 20th century, the term blood diamond evolved from diamonds mined in African conflict zones used to finance insurgency or crime.