The debt level is more than twice the size of the global economy and unprecedented as a proportion of GDP, the Fund says
The International Monetary Fund has urged governments to take action to tackle a record $152tn debt mountain before it triggers a fresh global financial and economic crisis.
Warning that debt levels were not just high but rising, the IMF said it was vital to intervene early in order to mitigate the risks of a repeat of the damaging events that began with the collapse of the US sub-prime housing bubble almost a decade ago.
Central banks have cushioned the developed world’s economy in a difficult period. They have yet to boost growth as they had hoped.
NEVER in recent economic history have interest rates been so low for so many for so long. It is a safe bet that central banks in America, Britain, the euro zone, Japan and Switzerland will not be increasing short-term interest rates this year. Haruhiko Kuroda began his tenure at the Bank of Japan with a dramatic easing of policy on April 4th. Mark Carney, the new boss at the Bank of England, has licence to ease, too. It would be hardly surprising if rates stayed at the low levels of the past four years throughout 2014 (see chart 1). When rates were first cut to their current levels in 2008-2009, it looked like a temporary expedient; now it looks like normality.
