People in Kent are a staggering £33billion in the red - a total that dwarfs even the national debt of Ethiopia, it was revealed today.

Research has shown residents of the county have rung up an incredible bill between them.

Debt-ridden Canterbury is the worst area - with people there alone owing a total of £3.5billion.

It means we’ve borrowed nine times as much as Ethiopia, whose national debt stands at a comparatively measly £3.54billion.

And it is £6billion more than crisis hit Greece’s budget deficit for 2009.

Among the debts totted up in the research were loans, bank overdrafts, credit card bills and mortgages.

Kent's worrying level of personal debt has raised concerns about our ability to manage our finances and also about our attitude to borrowing.

Steve Rees, from debt consultancy firm Vincent Bond, fears we’ve slipped into a culture where debt is acceptable.

He told KentOnline: "We've been borrowing for the last 10 years without any real limit to what we can borrow, without any real alarm bells or safety nets telling us when to stop."

He added that considering the national economic situation it’s quite staggering how relaxed we are about it.

"We did some research talking to students about what they thought about debt and 95 per cent of them said they felt that it was pretty much a common part of life.

Steve Rees, from Vincent Bond, on Kent's debt

"We've got a whole generation of younger people coming through who've grown up with this kind of attitude and we need to address that."

Research by Vincent Bond also shows that Ashford’s total debt is £2.4billion and Thanet’s £3billion.

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