Most G20 States Are Running a Deficit

The Group of Twenty (G20) heads of state are gathering for a two day summit in the German port town of Hamburg beginning on Friday. This group of states is responsible for some 80 percent of the world's economic output. However, most of them have run up a deficit in their state budgets for 2016. This means that the public sector spent more than it earned. Only two states have managed budget surpluses: Germany and South Korea. Saudi Arabia at the other end of the ranking has the biggest deficit, which primarily has to do with relatively low oil prices and the missing revenue form oil exports and the lack of revenue from other sources.