But there is a striking difference between Europe and America: in the euro area, the private sector is still in rough balance.

ECONOMIST: Rainy-day blues

Large volumes are all the harder to achieve because trade within Mercosur, between Brazil and Argentina, has to be kept in rough balance.

ECONOMIST: Making cars in Latin America

The amount of loans treated this way is unclear because nobody centrally collates the data, and Fitch says its three trillion yuan estimate for off-balance-sheet credit is rough.

WSJ: China's Lending Spills Over Limits