The Japanese sovereign debt downgrade a warning shot for the US bond market - The Experts | Switzer

The Japanese sovereign debt downgrade a warning shot for the US bond market - The Experts | Switzer
The following table explains why Japan received a sovereign debt downgrade last week. The bland numbers are that the Japanese Government has about $10 trillion of issued debt (205 per cent of GDP) and total government receipts (mainly taxation) of approximately $900 billion per annum. We can deduce that interest payable by the government is about $100 billion per annum, maturing debt approximately $500 billion per annum and over $400 billion of new debt is being created this year. The result – Japan’s total gross debt servicing commitment (including rollover debt) will exceed its total revenue collections for the first time since 1946.