But the debate about austerity and the cost of high public debt levels misses a key point Public debt owed to foreigners is different from debt owed to residents.

Almost 80 per cent of Africa's debt is owed to official institutions, about one third of which is multilateral debt owed mainly to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

This burden includes both public debt (owed by the government) and external dent (owed by the country as a whole to foreigners).

Some of Greece s national debt is owed to Greeks, by the way.

India did its part by writing off the debt owed by African countries under the HIPC Initiative and by restructuring commercial debt.

Furthermore, the debt owed by HIPCs to other multilateral banks is not covered by the plan.

Even if the face value of the Greek debt were not reduced, a maturity extension would still provide massive debt relief on a present value basis to Greece as a euro of debt owed 30 years from now is worth much less today than the same euro owed a year from now.

I wish to highlight the serious debt relief measures that Slovakia took earlier this year, forgiving several hundred million dollars in debt owed by heavily indebted poor countries.

Of 50 billion in external debt owed by Russian banks and firms in 2008, the government refinanced only 10 billion.

The G 8 finance ministers have agreed to cancel 40 billion of debt owed by eighteen of the world s poorest countries.

We recognize that the agreement does not cover bilateral debt and debt owed to other multilateral credit institutions, and we call for measures to address those issues in order to address the debt burden in Africa comprehensively.

India s external debt burden is even more favorable, at only 21.2 of GDP (much of it owed by the private sector), while short term external debt is only 5.2 of GDP.

The frequent and spectacular early modern bankruptcies of the French and Spanish monarchies concerned for the most part debt owed to foreigners.

Public debt includes not only the federal government s current 13.2 trillion, but another 3 trillion owed by America s states, counties, and cities.

Recent steps taken by the Group of Eight to write off 40 billion in debt owed by 18 countries, mainly African, were welcomed.

The remainder of the total external debt stock of Iraq, approximately 80 billion, is largely owed to official Arab bilateral and commercial creditors.

Public debt remains too high as well, and, making matters worse, much more of it is now owed to official rather than private creditors (which would complicate debt restructuring should it become necessary).

But, whatever form the default takes, the current owners of Greek debt will get less than the full amount that they are now owed.

Recent steps taken by the Group of Eight to write off 40 billion in debt owed by 18 countries, mainly in Africa, were welcomed.

All the time and resources devoted to that goal are insignificant compared to the debt owed by humankind to that suffering and heroic people.

The campaign to forgive Africa's debt was, on the other hand, focused on the crushing debt load owed by African countries to the IMF and the World Bank, who only have money to worry about.

Seizing on a 93 million debt that Armenia owed to Russia, the Putin administration demanded payment in either cash or equity in Armenia s major industries.

The debt includes money owed to private commercial banks, other governments, or international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

In response to calls for debt cancellation, China and India have forgiven significant amounts ( 1.2 billion and 500 million, respectively) owed by other developing countries.

Incredibly, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York decided that this meant that if Argentina paid in full what it owed those who had accepted debt restructuring, it had to pay in full what it owed to the vultures.

The G 8 finance ministers have agreed to cancel 40 billion of debt owed by eighteen of the world s poorest countries. This is a triumph for common sense.

Banks capital simply refers to their equity funding how much of their liabilities are owned by shareholders rather than being owed to creditors as some form of debt.

In this regard, we welcome the recent proposal by the G 8 to cancel 100 per cent of outstanding debt owed by 18 countries, including 14 from Africa.

Lastly, although the Secretariat had revised its forecasts upwards (from 574 to 605 million), the debt owed to Member States remained lower than the corresponding amount for 2002.

At the end of 2002, African countries owed a total of 296 billion to creditor countries and institutions, of which an amount of 211 billion was owed by the countries of sub Saharan Africa.8 This debt grew from 120 billion in 1980 to 340 billion in 1995.

In Saudi Arabia, the most highly indebted country of the Gulf Cooperation Council, total government debt increased to some 75 per cent of GDP in 2003 however, only some 23 per cent of total debt is owed to external creditors.

Having failed to collect what other countries owed it, Britain continued to pay the US for ten years, suspending debt service only in the depth of the Great Depression.

High income countries also finally agreed to reduce the debt owed by heavily indebted poor countries, allowing them to spend more on health care and less on crippling payments to creditors.

Tom owed Mary a lot of money.

20. Stresses the need to continue to take effective measures, preferably within the existing frameworks, to address the debt problems of the least developed countries, including through cancellation of the multilateral and bilateral debt owed by least developed countries to creditors, both public and private

16. Stresses the need to continue to take effective measures, preferably within the existing frameworks, to address the debt problems of the least developed countries, including through cancellation of the multilateral and bilateral debt owed by least developed countries to creditors, both public and private

(ii) Recovery of moneys owed to the Organization

In addition, there is the 3.9 trillion in debt owed by America s government backed housing finance agencies (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and others), which currently underwrite more than 90 of all US mortgages.

Virginia and several other southern states that owed little or had repaid what they owed voted against Hamilton s first assumption bill and defeated it.

American mortgages were no longer held at the local bank, but had been repackaged in esoteric financial instruments and sold around the world likewise, Greek government debt is in large part owed to foreigners.

The debt owed to Member States had also increased sharply and, given the surge in demand for peacekeeping operations, that trend was likely to become more pronounced over the course of the following year.

His recipe? Western countries should write off half a trillion dollars worth of debt owed to them by the Russian state corporations run by his pals from the Dresden KGB and the Ozero dacha cooperative.

Much is owed to island nations and climate justice groups

The Government still owed arrears of salaries to civil servants.

The world emerged from the Great War in the shadow of a mountain of debt that the victorious Allies owed to one another (the US being the only net creditor), and by the losers to the victors.