Almost every country in the world has sovereign debt – in fact, some of the world’s most powerful economies have a lot of it. Yet while it’s perfectly healthy to accrue debt to finance growth, some countries are bearing a serious burden. Using the World Economic Forum's debt-to-GDP ratio for 2017 (the latest year for which figures are available), here are the countries with the highest debt-to-GDP ratios in the world. We haven't included countries with economies smaller than $10 billion GDP.

Brazil's national debt increased by 8.9% last year, and it's expected to rise by 11% in 2019. The country is still struggling to recover from its worst recession for decades, between 2014 and 2016, and the recent wildfires could spell further trouble as some companies withdraw from investing in the country amid climate change fears.

The UK's debt fell slightly from 90.1% of GDP in 2014-15 to 88% in 2017, as a result of the fact that GDP is currently growing more quickly than government debt. That's after seven consecutive years, between the Great Recession in 2008 and 2015, when the debt kept growing. With Brexit on the horizon, a number of experts feat Britain may be plunged into another recession.

A country that is fuelled by copious oil reserves and a fast-growing financial sector, Bahrain's GDP is growing, yet not as quickly as its national debt. The debt-to-GDP ratio has more than doubled since 2014, and currently stands at 89%.

Experts believe that when national debt is 90% of GDP, this is when it starts to impact upon economic growth. Canada is just teetering on the boundary, and some economists worry that the country's borrowing in spite of good financial circumstances will leave it vulnerable to recession in the near future.

Following a period of economic growth throughout the 1990s, Jordan's growth rate slumped to just 2% after the Arab Spring in 2011. The debt-to-GDP ratio has crept up since the global recession, from 60% in 2008 to 96% today.

France has been a little more generous with its public spending after the 'gilets jaunes' (yellow vests) protests of the past year, where protesters demanded a lower cost of living for lower- and middle-classes. While most other Eurozone countries have seen debt fall in recent years, France has bucked the trend with a steady increase in its debt-to-GDP figure.

The 2012–2013 Cypriot financial crisis cranked up the country's debt-to-GDP ratio to perilous levels, soaring well above the Eurozone average in the past few years. While the ratio has dipped since 2014 levels of 108%, forecasts suggest it may be on the rise again.

Up until 2007, Spain was doing a good job of reducing its national debt. Yet the Great Recession, worsened by a real estate bubble in 2008, plunged the country into trouble, with property developers going bust and banks left crippled by debt. Spain's debt-to-GDP ratio went from 36% in 2007 to 98% in 2017.

Jamaica is still recovering from its late 1990s to early 2000s financial meltdown, never mind the global financial crisis of 2008, and much of its public debt emanates from this period. In 2013, the government launched an ambitious reform program to tackle the debt problem, and it seems to be working: the debt-to-GDP ratio has fallen from around 135% in 2013 to 101% in 2017.

Mozambique experienced a 'hidden debt crisis' in 2016, whereby secret loans given to the government by Credit Suisse and VTB Capital plunged it back into debt, following a period of economic growth. Activists at Mozambican NGOs have questioned the due diligence exercised by the London banks. Meanwhile, the country's economy has been hit hard by falling prices in commodity exports. These factors have combined to give the country a high debt-to-GDP ratio of 102%.

After the Arab Spring, Egypt has experienced several years of political crisis and its economy has suffered as a result. The current government has been borrowing heavily to pay off a huge deficit. Despite hefty tax rises and public sector reform, the national debt-to-GDP ratio has ballooned from 87.1% in 2013 to 103% in 2017. In response, at the end of last year Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced increasing austerity measures which include rising food and transport costs, although some economists worry the measures will be ineffectual.

Belgium has borrowed extensively since the global financial crisis of 2008, and public debt in relation to GDP had soared to 103.4% by 2017. The country is still paying the price for a series of mega-expensive bank bailouts, including the nationalization of Dexia Bank Belgium.

Despite the fact it's currently experiencing the second-longest economic expansion since the post-World War II boom, American national debt is at high rates not seen since the 1940s. On the campaign trail, president Trump promised to lighten the load of national debt yet he's done anything but, with the 2017 corporate tax cut projected to slow down growth as interest rates increase. The debt-to-GDP ratio currently stands at 105.2%.

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Singapore's debt-to-GDP ratio may look unhealthy, but the Asian economic powerhouse is in pretty robust financial shape. Singapore is actually a debt creditor with no external debts. All its debts are internal, which are easier to manage, and consist of Singapore Government Securities (SGS) issued to support the country's Central Provident Fund (CPF).

After South Sudan became an independent country in 2011, Sudan has been struggling with the economic shocks. Losing out on oil revenues which it had formerly relied on, coupled with the outbreak of civil war in South Sudan, has damaged the economy and plunged both countries into debt. Sudan's debt-to-GDP ratio currently stands at 121.5%.

Portugal was hit particularly hard by the global financial crisis of 2008 and subsequent sovereign debt crisis. The government was forced to borrow to keep the country afloat, and as a consequence, the national debt has skyrocketed to 125.7%. Although the absolute debt amount has actually fallen in recent years, the removal of money from the economy to repay debts has caused GDP to fall, hence the rise in the debt-to-GDP ratio.

Italy has struggled with debt for a long time: even before the financial crisis of 2008, the country's debt-to-GDP ratio exceeded 100% throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Economists predict that, in order to combat its debt problems, Italy's GDP would have to rise at a significantly higher rate than predicted: 1.3% per year as opposed to 0.6% per year. With growth rates like that looking unlikely, experts fear the country's debt will have negative effects on the Eurozone.

Following the end of its civil war in 1990s, Lebanon amassed debts trying to rebuild the country, yet ongoing conflict with Israel and internal political troubles made structural reform difficult. Interest payments consumed almost half of all domestic government revenues in 2016, making it harder still for the country to invest in infrastructure and public services necessary to development. With a debt-to-GDP ratio of 146.8% Lebanon is the third-most indebted country in the world.

Greece is in the middle of a debt crisis that had its roots in the 2008 global financial crisis. The Greek recession that followed has been described as the longest recession that any capitalist economy has endured, worse than the US Great Depression of the 1930s. Despite numerous attempts at reform, the Greek economy had to be bailed out in 2010, 2012 and 2015, and it was the first country not to repay an IMF loan on time.

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Two decades of economic stagnation and a series of failed stimulus plans have plunged Japan into severe public debt. Like Singapore however, most of this debt is internal rather than external and more easily managed, plus prime minister Shinzo Abe's 'Abenomics' financial reforms in recent years have helped stabilize the ratio and significantly improve Japan's future economic prospects. 

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