The 12 countries with the world's biggest budget surpluses
12. New Zealand — 0.3%: Isolated from the rest of the world, the south Pacific nation is a service based economy, and frequently runs a surplus. "Reducing debt to prudent levels will give the government more room to support New Zealanders," Finance minister Bill English said in May.
11. Estonia — 0.5%: Estonia, which has positioned itself as a northern European tech hub in recent years, has run a surplus for the past two years, with its government focusing on fiscal discipline.
10. Germany — 0.6%: Germany is famous for fiscal discipline, with the country renowned for running surpluses. In August, it announced an €18.5 billion surplus for the first half of 2016.
9. Iceland — 0.7%: The island nation has a population of less than 400,000 people, and a GDP of around $17 billion. It frequently ranks close to the top of global happiness indexes, and good fiscal discipline could help contribute to that.
T=8. Nepal — 1%: Nepal may be a tiny mountain nation nestled between India and China, but it has its finances in check, running a big surplus. The Nepali government has been criticised for failing to invest in the economy, which is in need of substantial infrastructure investment.
T=8. Luxembourg— 1%: The tiny central European nation has the highest nominal GDP per capita of any nation on earth, and has run a budget surplus every year since 2011.
6. Singapore — 1.1%: Famous as a financial centre and one of the busiest port cities on earth, Singapore's government values fiscal discipline, spending much less than it brings in in taxes.
5. Kuwait — 1.2%: The country is the fourth richest per capita on earth, and its currency, the dinar, is the most valuable on earth, allowing it to run up a big surplus.
4. Hong Kong — 1.5%: Between 2008 and 2015, Hong Kong not only ran budget surpluses, but surpluses in excess of expectations, with the gap being consistently underestimated by the city state's government.
3. Democratic Republic of the Congo — 1.9%: The central African nation, which is racked by poverty as a consequence of the nine-year civil war in the country, still managed to run a budget surplus of $43 million in 2015, despite the government investing heavily in agriculture.
2. Norway — 5.4%: Norway's government presides over the biggest sovereign wealth fund in the world, and has traditionally run enormous surpluses as big as 19%. However, in recent years the oil price crisis has made running such huge surpluses an impossibility. It still manages to take second place in the WEF's list.
1. Qatar — 10.3%: Oil-rich Gulf state Qatar may currently have the biggest budget surplus of any nation on earth, but by the end of 2016 that could change. Bloomberg reported in April that the country will slip into deficit at the end of the year.
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