The global debt mountain continues to grow.

The Institute of International Finance, in a Monday note, underlined how not just the U.S. but also Europe and other emerging economies have increased borrowing to take advantage of the low interest rate environment, with strong global growth whetting the appetite for debt among consumers.

See: The U.S. is now over $20 trillion in debt—here’s how it got there

Researchers at the banking trade group estimated the global stock of debt amounted to $237 trillion in 2017, a $21 trillion increase from the previous year.

“Still-low global rates continue to support unprecedented levels of debt accumulation,” the report said.



Read: Look at how out of control U.S. ‘debt creep’ is compared with the rest of the world

Brazil and Russia are still in the midst of easing monetary policy, while Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank have yet to wean themselves off their ultra-accommodative monetary policies. The German 10-year government bond yield TMBMKDE-10Y, -0.507% sat at 0.515%, while the Japanese 10-year government bond yield TMBMKJP-10Y, 0.007% stood at 0.034$%.

Total stock of debt is ballooning in emerging markets IIF

Although the growth of debt is evenly split among developed markets and emerging markets, the latter has shown a sharper increase in the ratio of their total debt to their annual economic output as their debt loads are growing from a smaller base. This could suggest a swifter deterioration of their ability to pay their creditors.

Argentina, Nigeria, Turkey and China showed the largest increases in their debt to GDP ratios. Such emerging economies have seen an increased willingness among investment managers to buy bonds sporting richer returns than in the U.S. or Europe.

China was one of the most notable culprits. Even though the second largest economy’s corporate leverage ratio fell to 160% of GDP, rising household and banking debt more than offset this drop. China’s total debt to GDP ran close to 300%.

As the data is backward-looking, the IIF didn’t mention the U.S.’s eye-watering accumulation of government debt, after the new tax cuts and a lift to fiscal spending caps sharply raised projections for budget deficits in the coming years. But in a March report, the IIF highlighted the risk of large fiscal deficits pushing up U.S. borrowing costs if the economy overheats.

Yet the trade group’s findings left plenty of room for optimism.

Strong global growth has helped slow the pace of rising indebtedness. Portugal, Austria and Spain are among the developed market countries that have cut their debt-to-GDP ratios by more than 15%. Both Portugal and Spain recently saw ratings upgrades, and large inflows to their sovereign debt markets.

Global corporate debt to GDP edged lower to 91.3% in 2017 from 92.2% in 2016, while financial sector debt to GDP slipped to 80.8% in 2017 from 82.4% in 2016.

But “improving sentiment and easing credit standards for loans” have increased appetite for debt among consumers across the world, making the household sector the exception, as its global share of debt to GDP inched higher to 59.3% from 58.9% last year.