Top Ten Countries With External Debt

Dubai isn't the only part of the world that is managing debt payments, despite the recent coverage about debt restructuring at Dubai World. Here's the top 10 countries by external debt - the total public and private debt owed to non-residents, repayable in foreign currency, goods, or services. These figures are calculated on an exchange rate basis. All information is from the CIA World Factbook and is current up to December 31, 2008. The list might just surprise you.

10. Luxembourg External debt: $2,020,000,000, 000 ($2 trillion)
9. Japan External debt: $2,231,000,000, 000 ($2.2 trillion)
8. Spain External debt: $2,317,000,000, 000 ($2.3 trillion)
7. Italy External debt: $2,328,000,000, 000 ($2.3 trillion)
6. Ireland External debt: $ 2,356,000,000, 000 ($2.4 trillion)
5. Netherlands External debt: $2,461,000,000, 000 ($2.5 trillion)
4. France External debt: $4,935,000,000, 000 ($4.94 trillion)
3. Germany External debt: $5,158,000,000, 000 ($5.2 trillion)
2. United Kingdom External debt: $ 9,041,000,000, 000 ($9 trillion)

And at #1?

The United States, with an external debt of $13,750,000, 000,000 ($13.75 trillion)

So where does the UAE come on the list? 33rd, with an external debt of $134,700,000, 000 (134.7 billion) - or in short, the UAE's external debt as a whole (which includes that of Dubai World) would need to be 15 times larger to make it into the top 10.