Global Debt Jumped to Record $237 Trillion Last Year

(Bloomberg) -- Global debt rose to a record $237 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2017, more than $70 trillion higher from a decade earlier, according to an analysis by the Institute of International Finance.

Among mature markets, household debt as a percentage of GDP hit all-time highs in Belgium, Canada, France, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. That’s a worrying signal, with interest rates beginning to rise globally. Ireland and Italy are the only major countries where household debt as a percentage of GDP is below 50 percent.

Still, the ratio of global debt-to-gross domestic product fell for the fifth consecutive quarter as the world’s economic growth accelerated. The ratio is now around 317.8 percent of GDP, or 4 percentage points below the high in the third quarter of 2016, according to the IIF.

Among emerging markets, household debt to GDP is approaching parity in South Korea at 94.6 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Tanzi in Washington at atanzi@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, James Thornhill, Chris Bourke

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.