Global debt is to reach record high in 2022

According to the British investor company Janus Henderson, the monetary incentives implemented by the United States over the past 2 years will lead to a record level of global debt by the end of this year.

Sovereign debt may increase by 9.5% and reach a record level of $71.6 trillion in 2022. The growth of debt will primarily affect the United States, Japan and China, and a further increase in lending will affect almost all countries.

Overall, global public debt jumped to $65.4 trillion in 2021, while global sovereign debt has grown by more than a quarter since the start of the pandemic (from $52.2 trillion from January 2020 to today).

JH analysts note that credit growth is observed in almost every country in the world. In China, for example, debt has increased by one-fifth ($650 billion). Among the major advanced economies, the largest percentage growth in lending was observed in Germany: indicators there increased by one seventh (by 14.7%). At the same time, the growth rate exceeded almost twice the global average.

However, despite the volume of lending, the cost of debt servicing remained low. The effective interest rate on the national debt as a whole was only 1.6% last year, compared with 1.8% in 2020. And the total cost of debt at the same time decreased from $1.070 billion in 2020 to $1.010 billion.

But there is also a positive moment. Experts note that the relatively rapid recovery of the global economy has improved the ratio of global debt to GDP from 87.5% in 2020 to 80.7% in 2021.