India's debt lower than best, emerging market economies

India's debt, as a percentage of world gross domestic product (GDP), is lower than the best or emerging market economies, according to Vitor Gasper, International Monetary Fund (IMF) director of fiscal affairs department, who cautioned that the global debt reached a record high of $182 trillion in 2017. India’s total debt was 125 per cent of its GDP in 2017.

In India, private debt in 2017 was 54.5 per cent of the GDP and the general government debt was 70.4 per cent of the GDP, while the total debt of China was 247 per cent of the GDP, say IMF statistics.

Debt in advanced economies, since the global financial crisis, has increased substantially while the private sector has been very gradually leveraging, Gasper told a news agency. In the last few years in India, private debt has declined from almost 60 per cent to 54.5.

In emerging market economies, private debt has risen much faster than public debt. China had substantial government assets, reflecting years of high infrastructure investment, he said.

These assets are larger than its liabilities, putting net worth—the difference between assets and liabilities—well above 100 per cent of the GDP, the highest among emerging economies, he added.