BIS Finds Global Debt May Be Underreported By $14 Trillion
In its latest annual summary published at the end of June, the IIF found that total nominal global debt had risen to a new all time high of $217 trillion, or 327% of global GDP…
… largely as a result of an unprecedented increase in emerging market leverage.
While the continued growth in debt in zero interest rate world is hardly surprising, what was notable is that debt within the developed world appeared to have peaked, if not declined modestly in the latest 5 year period. However, it now appears that contrary to previous speculation of potential deleveraging among EM nations, not only was this conclusion incorrect, but that developed nations had been stealthily piling on just as much debt, only largely hidden from the public eye, in the form of swaps and forwards.
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The BIS then provides substantial background data on who, where and how uses FX swaps (as both a lender and borrower), as well as where this “missing debt” can be found when looking away from the balance sheet. Here are the details:
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
