Which countries have accumulated the most private debt since 2008?

Sep 25, 2015

Mike Bird

Citi Research’s latest global economic outlook is out, and it’s crammed full of interesting data and charts on the state of the world right now. One of those charts shows how much private debt countries have accumulated since 2008.

Some countries have de-leveraged — reduced their debt levels — though not very many. The UK comes out as the most serious debt reducer, according to Citi, cutting private debt levels by over a fifth of GDP. The US has also seen genuine reductions.

China and Hong Kong comes out on the other end of the scale, having increased private debt by more like 80-100% of GDP, thanks to an explosion in corporate borrowing that Beijing is now trying to restrain.

The graph shows private debt accumulation from the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2015, and it’s in terms of each country’s GDP, so the figures are comparable:

This article is published in collaboration with Business Insider. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: Mike Bird is a European markets editor.

Image: A customer performs a transaction on an ATM. REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh.

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