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World Factbook estimate of 32.8% (see Figure 5). Thus, Taiwan's current debt of
32.8% can be considered to be stable for the past five years.
In general, compared with most of other comparable countries, Taiwan's
public debt ratio appears to be low, and there is certainly some room for
expansion for the new government to take, namely, more proactive fiscal policy to
pump up the economy. How much can the government increase its public debt?
Considering that the world average is 54.6% and the world median is 47.2%, and
most of Taiwan's "peer" countries have higher ratios, it appears that Taiwan's debt
can be increased conservatively from the current 32.8% to about 50% without
much difficulty, provided that the additional public debt is used to build long term
economic and social infrastructures.
Sources: World Factbook (2016b). Figure drawn by the author
Figure 5 Public Debt as Percentage of GDP
178 Countries, 2015 estimate
11
13 12
30 31
19
17
13
7 8 8
1
3 2 3
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Number of Countries (Cumulative)
Number of Countries (Frequency)
Percentage Interval (include the upper bound)
World
Average= 54.6%
medium = 47.2%
Taiwan
#43, 32.8%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
0~10
10~20
20~30
30~40
40~50
50~60
60~70
70~80
80~90
90~100
100~110
110~120
120~130
130~140
140~
Ch - HK Ph Ma Ne US -
Fr Sg - It Pt - Jp
-
Ru - Ko Au Ind Bz Ge
Uk
- Tw
Ido
Th
101
Taiwan Economic Forum
Volume 14, Number 4
