Eine übermässige Verschuldung des privaten Sektors kann die Stabilität der Wirtschaft untergraben. In diesem Feature wird die Schuldendienstquote als Messgrösse für den eingeschränkten finanziellen Spielraum vorgeschlagen, der sich aus der Verschuldung des privaten Sektors ergibt. Ferner...

Basel III uses the gap between the credit-to-GDP ratio and its long-term trend as a guide for setting countercyclical capital buffers. Criticism of this choice centres on three areas: (i) the suitability of the guide given the objective of the buffer; (ii) the early warning indicator properties...

Credit-to-GDP gaps are valuable early warning indicators for systemic banking crises. As such,they are useful for identifying vulnerabilities and can help guide the deployment of macroprudential tools such as the build-up of countercyclical capital buffers. In line with Basel III...

Excessive private sector debt can undermine economic stability. In this special feature, we propose the debt service ratio (DSR) as a measure of the financial constraints imposed by private sector indebtedness, and investigate its association with recessions and financial crises. We find that...

Household and international debt (cross-border or in foreign currency) are a potential source of vulnerabilities that could eventually lead to banking crises. We explore this issue formally by assessing the performance of these debt categories as early warning indicators (EWIs) for systemic...