"Jordan's debt overhang is a major impediment to economic growth."

A firm facing debt overhang cannot issue new junior debt because default is likely.

Moreover, more debt will make the problems of debt overhang worse not better.

Which countries have the greatest private debt overhang at the moment.

Either way Britain is stuck with a massive debt overhang and this is set to continue for some time.

Radio4's Today programme explained that inflation is being encouraged to eat away at the debt overhang in this country.

Squeezing that debt overhang out of the system is a long and painful process.

Possible "solutions" that have been proposed to the sovereign debt overhang are:

But the international agency did underestimate the seriousness of the debt overhang when it began to choke off growth in the early 1980's.

"He said that given the debt overhang, a potentially big recession is out there," she said.