#GlobalDebt
Global borrowing climbed to roughly $324 trillion in Q1
2025, says the Institute of International Finance,
dwarfing previous records and piling on $7.5 trilion in just three months.
That figure is about triple the global debt burden on the eve of the 2008 crisis and, at close to 325% of world GDP, would finance 50 full-price purchases of Apple,
Microsoft, and Saudi Aramco.
China, France, and Germany drove most of this year's $7.5 trillion jump, while emerging-market balances climbed past $106 trillion, lifting their leverage ratio to a record 245% even as Canada and the UAE trimmed liabilities .