The global economy is more deeply indebted than before the financial crisis and countries need to take immediate action to improve their finances before the next downturn, the International Monetary Fund has said. China was responsible for much of the increase, the IMF said, but noted that developed, emerging market and low-income countries all now looked vulnerable. It added that debt levels across emerging markets as a whole now averaged 50% of GDP, their highest level since the 1980s, the decade marked by the Latin American debt crisis. “Our debt sustainability analyses indicate that 40% of low-income countries are currently at high risk of or already in debt distress. If tax cuts with sunset provisions are not allowed to lapse, public debt would climb even higher.

Source: The Guardian April 18, 2018 13:30 UTC