At first glance I'd be inclined to agree, largely because the Debt/GDP ratio gets to the heart of a nation-state's ability to service its liabilities which matters much more to creditors than its debt load in absolute terms. I will say, though, GDP is an imperfect measure of productivity (in my opinion) and the true burden of servicing debts depends on many more factors than just an economy's run rate.
Of course You should do a realistic calculation and add hidden debt and discounted future obligations. But the relation holds economically.
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Totally. I'm trying to think of an example when that relation isn't as important as total debt load, but as with most things in economics it seems amounts and figures hold far less meaning in a vacuum.
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That's correct. You need points of orientation to make things measurable and comparable.
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