"Every citizen owes 2,620 euros" - that's what the headline looks like when you take the latest National Bank data and divide it by the population. Macedonia's net external debt at the end of June stood at 4.763 billion euros, or 25.9 percent of projected GDP. Compared to March, it grew by 30 million euros, or 0.6 percent.

The per-head figure is catchy, but it isn't an accurate picture. More than half of that debt isn't owed by the state. According to the National Bank, 58.2 percent of net external debt belongs to the private sector - companies and banks that borrowed abroad. Nobody is going to send you a bill for 2,620 euros.

The figure that's twice as big

The same statement contains a number that gets far less attention but says a lot more. The country's negative net international investment position reached 8.986 billion euros at the end of June - 48.9 percent of projected GDP. In just three months, it deepened by 134 million euros. Put simply: Macedonia owes the rest of the world far more than it holds in claims and assets outside the country.

That's not a bankruptcy alarm - it's a diagnosis of the model. An economy that grows on foreign investment, imports and borrowing from external creditors will have a balance sheet like this. The question is whether what flows back is growing too - exports, profit that stays at home, domestic investment. If only the liabilities are growing, 134 million in a single quarter is reason enough for someone to explain where the difference is going.