SUSTAINABILITY: Global debt level hits $233 trillion record high in Q3 2017.

It was referring to total debt incurred by the household, government, financial and non-financial corporate sectors.

However, China which has accounted for the lion’s share of new debt in emerging markets, saw the pace of debt accumulation slow; debt rose by two percentage points last year to 294 percent of GDP, compared to an average annual increase of 17 percentage points in the 2012-2016 period.

The IIF warned however, of “heavy emerging market redemptions” noting that over $1.5 trillion of bonds and syndicated loans would be maturing through end-2018. China, Russia, Korea and Brazil had heavy dollar-debt repayment schedule this year, it added.

The good news is that “robust economic growth meant debt-to-GDP ratios were declining.” The bad news is that nearly everybody is sitting on mountains of debt which needs to be refinanced regularly — and rates are going up.