Total Debt (Public and Private) in the United States, Euro Zone, China, Japan and the U.K.

This graph shows the total debt (government, households and firms) for the biggest economies in the world. First, what I think is remarkable is that total debt is for the developing world (except Japan) all around 250 percent of GDP. Second, total debt did not decline since the crisis. In Japan and China (perhaps as expected) it is even rising again.

BBVA Research

Global Housing Market Update

This table from The Economist shows average house prices in Developed and Bric countries compared to their respective income and rent levels. House prices in Hong Kong, Canada and New Zealand are most overvalued. While house prices in Japan are highly undervalued. Also, the graph shows that Hong Kong saw the highest average price increase over the last year. The Netherlands had the biggest decline.

Due to a request by the Economist this graph has been removed. 

View the graph here

Banking Sector: Percentage of GDP Across the World

This chart shows the banking sector in terms of assets as a percentage of GDP forcseveral continents. What stands out, are the extremely large banking sectors in European countries.

ZeroHedge

OECD Yearly 2012 GDP Growth

More and more countries have been reporting their fourth quarter GDP growth for 2012 lately, and hence the yearly 2012 GDP growth rate. For the countries that have reported their figures China had the highest yearly growth rate of 7.8 percent. Indonesia and Norway are following China with 6.2 and 3.0 percent respectively. Yet, most countries had a growth rate of less than 2 percent, with most all European countries on the lower end. Portugal and Italy saw their economy's decline the most, in Portugal even with 3.2 percent.

Changing Top Manufacturing Countries (1980-2010)

The developing countries have made their way more and more in the top 10 of global manufacturing countries. While you might expect China on the first spot, the United States as being the world's biggest economy is still the largest manufacturing producer. Brazil has advanced up to the sixth place. India just entered the top 10 in 2010 and Russia especially made a big jump from place 12 in 2000 to 11 in 2010.

ZeroHedge

Will Mexico Overtake China In U.S. Imports?

The Economist constructed this chart with data from the U.S. Department Of Commerce and HSBC. In 1990 China was still a small player in the international trade. Imports from the U.S. out of China were only 3.1 percent of the total U.S. imports. At the time Mexico was twice as big in the percentage of imports from the U.S. The biggest trading partners in terms of exports were Canada and Japan, both with a share of 18 percent. Especially Japan saw its share decline since the continuing crisis the country has been in from 1990. Today the import share that Japan has is lower than Mexico in 1990.

With the high economic growth in Japan before the 90s Japanese wages increased a lot. This gave opportunities to countries like China which at the time had an enormous potential cheap labor force to manufacture goods for exporting to the Western world. With the high economic growth in China wages are rising. Mexico seems the next country to benefit from low wages.

A likely reason why Canada is still a relatively big player is it's favorable location.

Due to a request by the Economist this graph has been removed. 

View the graph here

Credit Ratings, U.S., Japan and Euro Zone (Oct 2012)

Thompson Reuters created this graph with the long term sovereign debt ratings for the Western countries. For the three major credit rating institutions the ratings are listed.

Thompson Reuters

Share of World GDP Per Continent (1990-2010)

In the twenty years before 2010 China gained a lot of GDP. Since its GDP growth was a lot higher than in Europe and the United States it also gained in its share of World GDP. That is China's economy got bigger compared to Europe, United States and Japan. This is shown in the graph.

Conservable Economist

Gold Price In Several Currencies (2007-2012)

This graph from Reuters shows that gold (price set to 100 in all currencies in the beginning of 2007) rose in all selected currencies from 2007-2012. In UK pounds the gold price rose the most. What might be surprising is that the gold price rose more in Swiss francs than in Japanese yen, in which for the last currency gold grew the least.

ZeroHedge

Historical Financial Crises: Percentage Job Losses From Peak

In this graph the percentage job losses from the peaks are shows for several countries during selected financial crises. Finland (1991: year of start of the contraction) saw the biggest decline in employment; almost 20 percent. Compared to Finland (and most other selected countries) the United States job market is currently not doing that bad. For Sweden of the selected countries it took the longest, during its crisis starting in 1991, for the job market the recover to pre-crisis levels, 17,8 years. 

Luxetveritas

Developed Countries GDP Growth (2nd Quarter 2012)

This chart show the quarterly economic growth (second quarter versus the first quarter of 2012) for the countries in the Euro Zone, compared with the United States and Japan. What is interesting is that most Euro Zone countries saw their economic growth far below the U.S. and Japan, especially Portugal and Italy. Not being in the Euro Zone is not a guarantuee for economic growth though, as you can see with the -0.7 percent contraction in the United Kingdom.

http://twitpic.com/aj9dlc

Where are the Top 500 International Companies Located?

The United States is the only country where more than 100 of the top 500 international companies are located. China is a great second, with Japan, Canada and the big three European countries following shortly. From Business Insider: 'Total revenue at the 500 gained 13.2 percent from 2010, to $29.5 trillion, while profits hit $1.6 trillion'.

Business Insider

Manufacturing Activity Down Around the World

This chart from The Economist compares manufacturing activity around the world for last june compared to the last two years. Most countries saw a shard decline this year, compared to last year, although less in the Emerging Markets.

Due to a request by the Economist this graph has been removed. 

View the graph here

Oil Consumption (consumers+companies) Per Capita

As you were able to see in the post a few days ago, The United States consumes the most oil of all the countries. Perhaps surprisingly enough, it is not the country with the highest oil consumption per capita. Singapore takes the first spot, with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia second and third. The U.S. only takes the ninth place after two more oil producing countries, two European countries and Canada. Perhaps also surprisingly, Germany is on the bottom of the developed countries.

Update: this chart also shows consumption of companies, like aviation and oil refinery. That's why consumption per capita may be a bit misleading.

Oil Consumption Per Capita

Long Term Pension Age (OECD Countries)

OECD published this graph with the long term pension age in OECD countries. Denmark and Italy have their pension age linked to life expectancy, which means it will almost reach 69 in 2050. Iceland and Norway are already at 67, and increasingly more countries will reach that age in the next years. In some countries there are differences between woman and men.

OECD Pensions Outlook 2012

Share Prices Of Banks in Japan, U.S. and EU (1980-2012)

You can see the share price of the banks (average) for Japan, U.S. and the EU between 1980 and 2012 in this graph. Japan saw the bank shares rise dramatically during the share and housing bubble of the 1980's. Japan's bank shares didn't enter in the Dot com bubble as for the European and especially the banks in the United States. As you might have expected, bank share prices are currently a lot lower than before the crisis.

Reuters

Japanese Government Debt Approaching 250 Percent

Although the interest rate the Japanse government pays on its debt is one of the lowest, the debt it has is the highest debt as a percentage of GDP in the world.

Reuters

Euro Zone Assets Moved Outside Currency Bloc

According by a survey from Reuters, leading investors are moving out of the Euro Zone and into Japan and the U.K. This is very worrisome for the Euro (crisis).

Global PMI: Euro Zone Down, U.S. Up

The PMI stands for Purchasers Managers Index. The research firm Markit surveys managers of private companies and asks questions about five different topics. These topics are New orders, Output, Employment, Suppliers' delivery times and Stocks of purchases. When the index is at 50 there is no change. Anything below 50 means a decline in activity; similarly above 50 means an increase. This picture shows the data for April 2012. The PMI of the Euro Zone is declining more and more. Especially Greece, Spain and Italy are not doing well. Germany and France have joined them in recent months.

Government Debt And Deficit Euro Zone Members 2012 (Expected)

This graph from the Rabobank shows the fiscal positions of the Euro Zone members (orange) compared to the UK, US and Japan (blue). National debt is on the horizontal axis and deficit on the vertical axis. Numbers are expections from European Comission and IMF.

Notice that the U.S. and Japan have way worse fiscal positions than the Euro Area. Well known is that Greece and Italy have the biggest government debt compared to the GDP in the two economies. Ireland and Portugal are getting closer and closer to Italy though.