In recent years, Australia's debt to the rest of the world has increased, and grew on average by 6.1% per year between June 1999 and June 2009, increasing from $15,400 to $27,900 in 2007-08. The growth in a country's foreign debt can reflect several related influences. The value of its imports and other current payments to foreigners may exceed the value of its exports and other current receipts from foreigners, is this is the case then the nation experiences a deficit on its current account. The value of foreign debt is also influenced by exchange rate and price fluctuations and the current composition of the debt. Australia's net foreign debt is the net outcome of Australian liabilities to overseas and also the foreign liabilities to Australia.
Australia’s level of foreign debt is a key economic indicator; it is mainly referred to as external debt. It can be described as the amount of money owed to overseas countries in an economy. Foreign debt is different to foreign equity, foreign debt as stated above is the money owed where as the equity represents the ownership of the entity. On the other hand we have foreign liabilities which reflect the financial obligations that are owed to a foreign entity. There are three main ways to measure a countries foreign debt, which include the gross which is the total amount owed to overseas, net foreign debt and by taking the net foreign debt as a percentage.
In the table of 5.7 from the “economic round up” show that Australia’s external dent rose very sharply since 1980 both in money terms and percentage of GDP. Foreign debt is often expressed as a percentage of GDP in order to show its relative significance. This allows for more appropriate comparisons to be made over time and reflects to a degree the economy's capacity to repay the debt. Debt liabilities can be held by the public sector and the private sector. The public sector and private sector components of foreign debt showed different