Too Important To Fail?

October 2008 | Economic Analysis

The Middle East and North Africa has by no means escaped the fall-out from the global financial crisis and economic slowdown, but, by and large, the region's debt burdens are either non-existent or small enough for the spectre of default to be absent. However, there is one exception: with a government external debt burden of 80% of GDP (feeding into a total public debt burden of 170%), Lebanon is easily up there with our other candidates for default. Ecuador's public sector debt stands at about 24% of GDP, Pakistan's 23%, Argentina's a mere 16% of GDP, and Ukraine's just 11%.

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