[Benjamin]

And if not, then how is every single country in debt to somebody else?

[Niamh.]

I don't know, does Germany have debt? they seem to lend money to everyone

[michael21]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

I don't know, does Germany have debt? they seem to lend money to everyone

so does the UK

[Nedusa]

Norway has no national debt, quite the contary in fact, thanks to 40 years of oil and gas revenues , Norway has a social fund set up by the govt to provide for the future of Norway's children. The fund currently stands at approx 400 Billion pounds equivalent , and is invested across all forms of investment .

No national Debt here....!!!!!

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

Norway has no national debt, quite the contary in fact, thanks to 40 years of oil and gas revenues , Norway has a social fund set up by the govt to provide for the future of Norway's children. The fund currently stands at approx 400 Billion pounds equivalent , and is invested across all forms of investment .

No national Debt here....!!!!!

You are misinformed... Norway has a public national debt of almost 300 billion and a slight budget deficit. National debt is actually higher "per head" than the UKs, although it's a smaller percentage of GDP and the deficit is smaller.

Germany's debt levels are similar to the UKs, but they don't currently have a budget deficit so aren't accumulating more debt. They don't really have a surplus either, though, so their debt levels are static.

The only 1st world country that I know of that has a relatively low debt level per head is South Korea, though they still have debt and a slight budget deficit. There are a few countries that currently have moderate debts but a budget surplus (they're slowly paying it off), such as Iceland.

But no, there isn't a country that is not in debt. We all owe each other money. Seems impossible? It's because all of the debt is gathering interest. We all owe each other much more than has ever been borrowed. Its an unholy mess, basically.