How Much Does Greece Owe? 4 Charts That Put Greek Debt in Perspective

What Greece Owes, Chart No. 1: Debt-to-GDP Ratio

Debt-to-GDP ratio measures a country’s debt compared to its economic output. In other words, what a country is borrowing divided by what it’s bringing in. The higher the ratio, the harder it will be for a country to repay its debts.

A look at debt-to-GDP ratios in other Eurozone countries reveals Greece isn’t the only villain of the seven-year-long-and-counting Eurozone crisis .

Greece has a 174.9% debt-to-GDP ratio. Its Eurozone brethren Italy, Portugal, and Ireland come in high as well, at 132.1%, 129%, and 123.3% respectively.

In fact, because of the debt racked up in many Eurozone countries including Greece, the European Central Bank (ECB) implemented quantitative easing (QE) this month.

What Greece Owes, Chart No. 2: Greek Foreign Debt vs. U.S. Foreign Debt

Greece owes a lot to foreign countries – but not nearly as much as does the U.S.

As of March 6, 2015, U.S. public debt reached $13.08 trillion (74% of fourth-quarter 2014 GDP).

Of that sum, $6.1 trillion (47%) is owned by foreign investors.

China owns the biggest chunk of U.S. foreign debt at $1.3 trillion, followed by Japan at $1.2 trillion. These top two creditors constitute 59% of U.S. foreign debt.

Comparatively, Greece owes $352.7 billion to foreign investors. It owes its top two foreign creditors – the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – roughly $264.5 million (75% of its total debt).

What Greece Owes, Chart No. 3: Greece’s Debt to Germany vs. Germany’s Debt to Greece

Greece owes Germany 56 billion euros ($61.1 billion). But what does Germany owe Greece?

On March 10, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he had a duty to pursue World War II reparations from Germany.

You see, Greece was one of the worst sufferers of Axis occupation. Tens of thousands died.

On June 10, 1944, Nazis went door-to-door- in Distomo, a tiny hamlet northwest of Athens. There, they rounded up and killed 218 victims, including babies and the elderly. In 2000, a Greek court ruled the people of Distomo were owed $30 million in compensation.

In 1942, the Nazis forced the Greek Central Bank into a loan worth at least $11.7 billion today.

According to The Washington Post , the figure argued for general war reparations starts around $171.2 billion.

The German government argues compensation was settled in 1990, when the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and France signed a pact with the former East and West Germany that ended the reparations debate.  It also questions why Greece did not negotiate reparations when it entered the Eurozone in 2001.

What Greece Owes, Chart No. 4: Greek Debt vs. 2008 TARP Bailout

Like Greece, the U.S. economy needed a bailout after the Great Recession.

Unlike Greece, the U.S. bailout came in to the tune of $700 billion in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in 2008.

Of the funds allotted under TARP, $645 billion was actually paid out.

The largest recipients were American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) ($70 billion), Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) ($45 billion), and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) ($45 billion cash and $5 billion in support of a loan guarantee).