The United States is looking at about 1.3% projected GDP growth – nothing exciting, but also nothing to sneeze at when you see some of the other disappointing figures out there.

Top 10 Worst GDP Growth Rates for 2012

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1. Greece – -3.5% GDP growth

2. Portugal – -3.1% GDP growth

3. Italy – -0.2% GDP growth

4. Finland - -0.1% GDP growth

5. France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands – 0% GDP growth

6. Switzerland – 0.2% GDP growth

7. Spain – 0.3% GDP growth

8. Denmark, Slovenia – 0.5% GDP growth

9. Hungary – 0.6% GDP growth

10. UK – 0.7% GDP growth

Of course, the “PIIGS” are all represented here – as is most of Europe, the region projected to fare the worst by far for 2012.  The UK still looks paltry but will fare slightly better than France and Germany, the most vibrant economies of Europe – which are expected to have no growth at all.

Of the countries looking forward to negative growth – pay attention to the public debt.  Japan has the highest public debt as % of GDP anywhere, but it is still expected to see 2.2% growth in 2012.  Finland has no public debt problem.  So that leaves Greece, Portugal and Italy.  Greece’s public debt ranks third highest in the world – after Japan and Zimbabwe – at 167% of GDP.  That’s just over one and a half times the amount they expect to bring in.

Portugal and Italy come in close next, with Italy owing 121% of GDP and Portugal owing 119%.

Of note – Spain is not looking anywhere near as bad by the numbers as its fellow PIIGS counterparts.  It will see more growth than Germany, for one, and it doesn’t even rank in the top 10 worst public debt victims worldwide.