Here's how much debt every major economy in the world will borrow this year

Standard & Poor's just released a great infographic, showing just how much fresh long-term government debt is expected to be issued from the world's major economies in 2015.

They're forecasting that the world's governments will issue another $6.7 trillion (£4.4 trillion) in long-term debt this year. But that colossal figure is still a 5.7% drop on 2014.

Take a look at how the top 40 nations stack up:

Standard & Poor's

It's easy to see from the size of just this year's issue why the US government bond market is such a massive, global force: The amount being issued, even with a deficit of less than 3% of GDP, it's twice as large as the eurozone's equivalent (€916 billion, $997.15 billion).

About two thirds of the total being issued isn't to finance anything new, but to roll over existing long-term debt.

And in Europe, it's not a very even spread. Nearly half of 2015's long-term debt issuance will be done by Italy and France:

Standard & Poor's