After Malaysia's national debt was [reassessed][1], its totaled $250bn along with other government liabilities.
Now, I'm having trouble understanding the direct relevance of the ratio of goverment debt to gross domestic product, in Malaysia's case.
Namely, in the article it is stated that its 80 percent of Malaysia's gross domestic product. Why is this statistic important? That is, why should I care about the total government liabilities of Malaysia's being 80% of its gross domestic product.
In the case of Turkey, [it][2] is mentioned that companies based in Turkey are suffering under the weight of the foreign debt amounting to some $300bn. The comparison to the countries GDP is then made again; "\$300bn is more than a third of GDP".
Again, what gives a measure on the relevance of that the foreign debt is more than a third of GDP?
How does this measure differ from country to country?
[1]: Malaysia leader on a mission (Hannah Beech and Richard C. Paddock, Sa-Su 16th of June 2018)
[2]: Pillow talk; surrender your dollars, urges President Erdogan (The Economist, 16th of June 2018)