Something I have been pondering for a few days now is just how much global debt there is and how it has changed over the last year.

A little searching lead me to The Economist and their interactive  global debt comparison tool. The current estimate (at the time of writing) for global debt is $38.2 trillion, up from $33.1 trillion in 2009 and forecast to reach $43.3 trillion in 2011.

The trend in debt vs GDP since 1999 is shown in the following graph constructed using data from the above site :

The interesting thing that stands out is that apart from a small reductions in debt in 2000, 2001 and 2005, the total has gone ever higher despite many years of growth. From that perspective, if the world does not pay down its debt in good times, how long can this ever increasing pile keep growing before the interest costs become unsustainable?

And just in case you were wondering, the UK looks like this :

I assume the fluctuations in debt are due to the Dollar to Pound rate changes but it shows clearly how GDP has been smashed (in dollar terms) by the recession as well as the truly terrifying increase in debt since 2008.