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Usually borrowing money is not advisable and this could shows somehow urgency and needs to what they wanna used the money to sort for. If a country borrow money this doesn't directly means they aren't producing or productive, what happened is that they could need urgency to use it and facilitate their projects on individual or countries, maybe after which they have accomplished what they are borrowing the money for then they have to pay out their loans. But what matters is that under what circumstances are they borrowing the money, project, business or what? To me it would be more ideal to borrow on a project that would give them some specific amount of profits to pay back their loans.
As far as I know, almost every country in the world has foreign debt. They borrow out of necessity and the amount depends largely on the needs of each country. Individuals also borrow out of necessity, without urgency or other reasons, borrowing doesn't make sense. Borrowing to expand a business is reasonable, but borrowing for lifestyle is never recommended.
Borrowing is not always bad, in some cases borrowing is recommended to maintain a business or develop it. In such cases, borrowing can save a potential business or even help it move forward. It's unfortunate that borrowing for lifestyle purposes is a bad idea.