As Chart 6 shows, in some countries credit to the private sector grew by more than 10% a year for over a decade. As a result, their debt with the rest of the world ran up tremendously.
This was most dramatically the case in Ireland, which moved from a net creditor position of 52% of GDP in 1999 to a net debtor position of 71% of GDP in 2008. Note that the Netherlands is not doing particularly well with regard to this measure either. This is mainly the result of the growth in mortgage loans.