Emerging market debt build-up in Asia a cause for concern: IIF

Tokyo

THE relentless rise in emerging market debt continued into the first quarter of this year with a worrying proportion of it in dollars or other foreign currencies and a risk that borrowers could face problems in rolling over such debt, the Institute of International Finance (IIF) said on Wednesday.

Concern centres on China, where, according to the IIF, "over the past four quarters, the rise in the US dollar value of total debt has been sharpest, rising by some US$2 trillion to over US$32.7 trillion". But aspects of the debt build-up are posing worries in other parts of Asia as well.

Malaysia is one of the countries where the rise in foreign currency debt has been "striking", while South Korea is among those nations facing a high level of debt redemptions bet…