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Marcus the rest of it is private sector debt, which is the responsibility of the many various importers and borrowers using debt as part of their business operation. Nothing wrong with using debt in larger successful businesses - especially in low interest rate environments. What we don't want is to get ito a situation like Greece where the level of debt got to a ridiculous level of GDP and there was never any hope of paying it off, they just kept trying to roll it over while adding new debt on top to sustain a spending lifestyle with no stomach for the reforms necessary to pay it down. That is an extreme example of what can happen when countries (ie governments) cannot get the reforms through to control the debt. Allowing debt to continue to grow to unsustainable levels is criminal in my mind, and any government that just stacks on more debt to fund electoral promises to gain power or sustain power is mortgaging the future for their own selfish needs. Full credit to the current government for trying to do things to control deficit growth and not unexpectedly the people most responsible for the deficit growth don't want to see the current government succeed - but lack any plan of their own to stem the problem. In this status quo situation a crisis is required to facilitate change. This is the classic change manager's challenge - you have to break the system in order to fix it; and the vested interest in the present system will fight with all their power to hold on to the old way. People hate change but its coming.
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