Nations felt pressure to quickly repay debtsaccumulated during the war, but higher interest rates led to lower economic output, which in turn led to more protectionism.
There are demands for a write-off, as well as for Russia's debts to the West to be offset by notional loans made long ago to Soviet satellite states such as Vietnam, or by the energy debtsaccumulated more recently by nearby countries such as Ukraine.
Mixing up the difference between the country's total accumulateddebts and one year's additional borrowing (the deficit) is something politicians - and, yes, even senior BBC broadcasters - do depressingly often.