Perception At Variance

The little detail that caught our eye in the investment report on Spain recently published by some outfit called 'Variant Perception' was the writer's citing of the statistic that the current account deficit was a very high 10% of GDP in 2007 to prove a point about the present when data dating from two months before the piece's publication was available at the time, data which unfortunately does not nearly as well support the article's thesis (as we might imagine). To wit, the CAD is currently down 40% year-on-year and GDP, about 4. The end result is that it is now about 6% of the Spanish gross domestic product.

And it's not even that we even disagree with the general gist of the piece, but when it is also claimed that the construction company, Metrovacesa, was intervened in by its creditors when it wasn't, we start to dig. And we came up with the following bit of fantasy...

The chart at the top of the page, entitled 'External Debt' - a screengrab from the piece, thanks - is accompanied by the text, 'Spain's external debt is extremely high in relative and absolute terms. It is among the highest in the world - the fifth largest - and is even higher when looked at per capita, only behind Ireland'.

Consulting the CIA World Factbook, from which it appears that these numbers were derived, we find the following:



Ireland is correctly identified as leading the parade. Spain, however, is in 9th place - nestled between Germany and Sweden on this count.

Variant Perception is a subscription service, by the way. That is to say that one is actually asked to pay for the information contained.

*This piece has been changed from its original form. The explanation can be found here.

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