The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned of interest rate risks with regard to the growing mountain of global debt, which jumped to a record $226 trillion in 2020 as governments unleashed unprecedented waves of stimulus spending to blunt the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic recession.
IMF officials stated in a Dec. 15 blog post that 2020 saw the largest one-year debt surge in recorded history, as central banks eased monetary conditions and governments, households, and businesses borrowed a total of $28 trillion, with the borrowing spree pushing the debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratio to 256 percent.
