Global perspectives : the growing inequality in global...

Notes: Sumario: When it comes to adding to the world's government debt stocks, the coronavirus has been an equal-opportunity menace. Nearly all governments have coped with the economic fallout of the pandemic similarly by boosting spending on health sectors and providing support to households and businesses, while running up debt to pay for it. Global government debt is estimated by Fitch Ratings to have increased by about USD10 trillion in 2020 to USD77.8 trillion, equivalent to 94% of world GDP. Both the increase and level of debt will be records. The previous USD10 trillion tranche took seven years to build, from 2012 to 2019. The rapid and widespread increase in debt has had a significant effect on sovereign credit ratings, with a record 51 downgrades of 33 sovereigns in 2020, 27 of which are emerging markets. The sovereigns downgraded multiple times were all emerging markets.