WSJ | Government debt in 20 industrialized countries stands at $44 trillion.
But it’s actually a lot more than that, according to a new report.
After factoring in public pension and other retirement liabilities, the
debt levels nearly triple to a staggering $122 trillion.
That’s the math according to a new report from
Citigroup Inc report called, “The Coming Pensions Crisis,” which
analyzed government pension liabilities from 20 countries that are
members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development .
“It is really a ticking time bomb,” said Charles Millard, Citi’s head
of pension relations and former head of the Pension Benefit Guaranty
Corporation, the U.S. safety net for private-sector pensions.
To put the unstated debt levels in perspective: The additional
unstated $78 trillion in retirement-related debt is equivalent to a single year of global economic output.
Citi researchers measured government pension liabilities, a
combination of Social Security and public-sector pension obligations,
finding the average country was carrying retirement debt of 190% versus
gross domestic product—well above a 100% threshold that many experts
consider concerning.
“Imagine you thought your mortgage was $440,000 but then the bank called
up and said it was $1.3 million. That’s really what we’re facing,” Mr.
Millard said.
