Bernard Hickey details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9am, including news Dubai faces its December 14 deadline to repay its US$5.25 billion Nakheel Sukuk, Bloomberg reported. This is an Islamic bond at the centre of Dubai's debt crisis. No one is really sure whether Dubai can repay it and calm down global markets.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, the Treasury is due to release its Budget Economic and Fiscal Update tomorrow for the 2010 Budget, Brian Fallow at NZHerald reports. This will set the scene for how tough Bill English's budget has to be. Also, Revenue Minister Peter Dunne has released his income splitting proposal, which would reduce the tax paid by families with children. National has agreed to support this to a first reading. The Tax Working Group however has not focused on income splitting.

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6 Comments

by Roger Witherspoon | 14 Dec 09, 11:03am

Bernard, Thought you might like

Bernard,

Thought you might like this site...
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_deb_ext_pergdp-economy-debt-extern...

I've only just found it but so far it looks good

by Nicholas Arrand | 14 Dec 09, 11:10am

I think they might want

I think they might want to include an updated Iceland figure, Roger!

by NevilleWC | 14 Dec 09, 11:32am

Roger's link Note - The

Roger's link
Note - The number is foreign currency debt so Greece doesn't look too bad because, I assume, their debt is in EUR

by Roger Witherspoon | 14 Dec 09, 11:43am

Yes, figures always seem to

Yes, figures always seem to be out of date. At least they show the date they are using.

I came across it because my sister said she had heard that kiwis were moving to Aus because of the crime rate. This was news to me. So I looked for some figures and to my satisfaction I found that murder rates in Aus are 35% higher than here in NZ. Whew.

To put that in perspective my sister lives in the US where the murder rate is 380% higher than NZ.

Which goes to show that my sister doesn't know what she is talking about. So there.

by Gertraud T. | 14 Dec 09, 12:32pm

there are more recent numbers

there are more recent numbers for some countries re. foreign debt:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List-of-countries-by-external-debt

by Roger Witherspoon | 14 Dec 09, 3:19pm

Thanks Gertraud, your link didn't

Thanks Gertraud, your link didn't seem to work but
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt
did, very interesting:

Listing external debt as % GDP in order we are not so shabby at 46%, much better than Aus with 107% and the USA at 95%.

Perhaps that's how to catch up with Australia (sshhh don't tell Don Brash).