The rise has actually been much less pronounced for the United States during the same period: US assets grew from 80% of GDP in 1999 to 90% today, and US liabilities increased from 91% to 110% of GDP.
In other words, the euro area and the United States held roughly  5  See Box 13 in the June 2007 issue of the Monthly Bulletin entitled “Is the downward impact of globalisation on import prices waning”.