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Comment by llampx | Hacker News Reader

The US's $34 trillion deficit would like a word.

Just take a look at how much debt was added since the debt ceiling was lifted.

Just look at how much was wiped away by inflation during covid. Every year 3-4% of the national debt simply disappears due to inflation. When inflation is higher, even more disappears.

I don't have numbers to oppose, but do yours take in account that the government is paying interests on its debt ?

For context: The US's debt to GDP ratio was 96% in 2023

China's debt to GDP ratio was 288%

This is often repeated but is actually completely wrong.

China's government debt to GDP is 77%, vs 121% for the US : https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/GG_DEBT_GDP@GDD/CHN/...

The numbers you posted are the US's federal government debt to GDP and Chinas total overall debt to GDP (including private debts such as mortgages). The two numbers are obviously not comparable at all.

My understanding is that analysts frequently include not just the debts of China's central government, but also all of the provinces, which are much much more heavily indebted. Under the argument that the Chinese central government is going to cover their provinces' debts in a pinch. (Not defending the specific numbers quoted by OP, just a general observation)

The 77% is total government debt, which includes provincial and local government debt - national government debt is only about 10% of GDP. The 280% figure includes corporate and household debt.

Ah! Thanks for correcting me. I only did a short amount of Google searching

That's US gov debt vs PRC gov aggregate debt.

US aggregate debt to GDP is 730%.

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