Yet, despite the space created for fiscal stimulus and accommodative macroeconomic policy settings – and very high commodity prices – growth persistently disappointed, and has slowed steadily since 2011.
As the Bank for International Settlements and other observers have argued, emerging-market debt is a worrying fault line in the world economy.5 This is partly the old foreign-currency story, in which a stronger dollar and tighter monetary policy in the US render debt burdens unsustainable. It is also a debt-accumulation story, in which growth is accomplished through greater leverage.