Should governments in emerging economies worry about their debt?

FINANCE MINISTERS of yesteryear would have been shocked by the amount of borrowing their successors must now contemplate. But they would have been just as gobsmacked by how cheap that borrowing has turned out to be. In many countries, the interest rate on government debt is expected to remain below the nominal growth rate of the economy for the foreseeable future. In other words, the “growth-corrected interest rate”, as some economists call it, will be negative. That will be the case in all rich countries in 2023, according to projections published earlier this month by S&P Global, a rating agency.