A country’s net foreign asset position can lead to destabilising dynamics, but there is asymmetry depending on whether a country is a creditor or debtor, according to a working paper published by the Bank for International Settlements.

Authors Enrique Alberola-Ila, Ángel Estrada and Francesca Viani note the imbalance between creditor countries and debtor countries has been growing with barely a pause since well before the 2008 crisis. They seek to investigate whether a large imbalance in stocks