The 12 countries with the world's biggest budget surpluses

Big government spending and fiscal stimulus may be coming back into fashion with Deutsche Bank, Barclays, HSBC, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch all publishing notes to investors backing fiscal stimulus in recent months.

"Fiscal easing is gaining traction globally while central bankers are hesitating to add more monetary stimulus to an already ultra-accommodative stance," Antonio Garcia Pascual at Barclays argued recently.

However, for many governments around the world ensuring that the books are balanced and that the country runs a surplus - where government incomes (from taxes etc) outstrip their outgoings (spending) - is still the number one goal.

Some nations are better at achieving this goal than others, with a range of economic and political factors contributing, so using data from the World Economic Forum's benchmark Global Competitiveness Report, Business Insider decided to check out the countries running the biggest surpluses.

You can see the list below.