Global debt hits over $250T in H1: US-based trade group
ISTANBUL-Anadolu Agency
The global debt jumped by $7.5 trillion to reach $250.09 trillion year-on-year in the first half of 2019, said a global trade group of financial institutions.
Households, non-financial corporates, governments, and financial sector' total debt amounted to more than threefold (320 percent) of the global GDP, the U.S.-based Institute of International Finance said on Nov. 14.
Mature markets' debt constituted 71.8 percent of the total global debt with $179.5 billion, its data showed.
Emerging markets' debt also hit a record by reaching $71.4 billion or 220 percent of their GDP, up from $66.8 billion in the same half last year.
China and the U.S. were responsible for over 60 percent of the increase of $7.5 billion, according to the institute.
"With few signs of a slowdown in the pace of debt accumulation, we estimate that global debt will surpass $255 trillion this year," it said.
The debt of households rose by 3.5 percent to reach $47.2 trillion, non-financial corporates by 3.2 percent to $74.2 trillion, governments by 4.2 percent to $68.4 trillion, and financial sector by 0.8 percent to $61 trillion in the same period.
The institute also expects that governments' debt will reach $70 trillion in 2019, "driven mainly by the surge in U.S. federal debt.
