They are the Soviet Union ($678.8 million), Britain ($325.5 million), China ($116.1 million), Indonesia ($26.4 million) and Iran ($23.3 million). Since World War II, the bulk of foreign debt can be attributed to military assistance, nonmilitary foreign aid and trade financing.
After World War II, according to the Potsdam conference held between July 17 and August 2, 1945, Germany was to pay the Allies US$23 billion mainly in machinery and manufacturing plants. Dismantling in the west stopped in 1950. Reparations to the Soviet Union stopped in 1953.
After World War II, a number of treaties were signed to make sure countries like Greece, Israel, and the Soviet Union were compensated for the destruction caused. Those who lost the war were therefore required to pay the victors. The only Allied country who won but paid compensation was the USA, to Japan.
By the end of World War II Britain had amassed an immense debt of £21 billion. Much of this was held in foreign hands, with around £3.4 billion being owed overseas (mainly to creditors in the United States), a sum which represented around one third of annual GDP.
China has steadily accumulated U.S. Treasury securities over the last few decades. As of October 2021, the Asian nation owns $1.065 trillion, or about 3.68%, of the $28.9 trillion U.S. national debt, which is more than any other foreign country except Japan.
Russia is teetering on the edge of a possible sovereign debt default, and the first sign could come as soon as Wednesday. The Russian government owes about $40 billion in debt denominated in U.S. dollars and euros, and half of those bonds are owned by foreign investors.
Bank of Taxpayers
According to The Econ- omist magazine, Canada's to- tal national debt stands at more than US $1.1 trillion or $32,506 per capita.
Current Foreign Ownership of U.S. Debt
Japan owned $1.23 trillion in U.S. Treasurys in June 2022, making it the largest foreign holder of the national debt. The second-largest holder is China, which owns $967.8 billion of U.S. debt.
At the end of July 2021, 53% of federal debt was owned by investors from the United States, including the Federal Reserve. The various trust funds operated by the United States government, like the Social Security and Medicare trust fund accounts, held another 22% of federal debt.
Of the total 7.42 trillion held by foreign countries, Japan and Mainland China held the greatest portions. China held 980.8 billion U.S. dollars in U.S. securities. Japan held 1.21 trillion U.S. dollars worth. Other foreign holders included oil exporting countries and Caribbean banking centers.
The U.K. only paid off the last of its World War II debts to the U.S. at the end of 2006. In 2014, then Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced plans to pay off debt dating back to the South Sea Bubble of 1720, as well as World War I.
They are the Soviet Union ($678.8 million), Britain ($325.5 million), China ($116.1 million), Indonesia ($26.4 million) and Iran ($23.3 million). Since World War II, the bulk of foreign debt can be attributed to military assistance, nonmilitary foreign aid and trade financing.
In 1795, the United States was finally able to settle its debts with the French Government with the help of James Swan, an American banker who privately assumed French debts at a slightly higher interest rate. Swan then resold these debts at a profit on domestic U.S. markets.
Every year since 2010, China has held more than $1 trillion in U.S. debt. That's when the U.S. Department of the Treasury changed how it measures the debt.
China's debt is more than 250 percent of GDP, higher than the United States.
Can the U.S. Pay Off its Debt? As budget deficits are one of the factors that contribute to the national debt, the U.S. can take measures to pay off its debt through budget surpluses. The last time that the U.S. held a budget surplus was in 2001.
As of 2022, the Japanese public debt is estimated to be approximately US$12.20 trillion US Dollars (1.4 quadrillion yen), or 266% of GDP, and is the highest of any developed nation. 45% of this debt is held by the Bank of Japan.
On January 1, 1790, the United States' public debt stood at $52,788,722.03 (Bayley 31). It consisted of the debt of the Continental Congress and $191,608.81 borrowed by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in the spring of 1789 from New York banks to meet the new government's first payroll (Bayley 108).
Germany started making reparations payments to Holocaust survivors back in the 1950s, and continues making payments today. Some 400,000 Jews who survived the Nazis were still alive in 2019. That year, Germany paid $564 million to the Claims Conference, which handles the payments.
China refused war reparations from Japan in the 1972 Joint Communiqué. Japan gave official development assistance (ODA), amounting to 3 trillion yen (US$30 billion). According to estimates, Japan accounts for more than 60 percent of China's ODA received.