IIF Authors

Status: Will be live at 12/08/2014 00:00

December 2014 Capital Markets Monitor - (De)Leveraging: A Mixed Picture

Monday, December 8, 2014

Since a high level of leverage was thought to have contributed to the 2008 financial crisis, deleveraging has been seen as a desirable process to reduce risk and vulnerability in the financial system. Six years after the crisis, while there has been deleveraging in certain sectors, mainly in the U.S., the debt/GDP ratio of most sectors, mainly non-financial sectors, has kept increasing, bringing the total debt-to-GDP ratio of the world's non-financial sectors above 240% by mid-2014. In the context of slow global growth and pervasive low inflation, such rising and high level of debt is worrisome both in terms of sustainability and the ability of non-financial sectors to incur new debt to support more vigorous growth.

Following the publication of the' December 2014 Capital Markets Monitor, Hung Tran hosted a teleconference on December 9, 2014. The recording of the briefing and the Q & A session is now available for replay.