A decade of super-low interest rates and ready access to debt markets has a significant downside: the rise of zombie borrowers.

These companies’ operating profits are insufficient to cover even interest payments on their debts, let alone eventual repayment of principal; companies’ ability to cover interest payments is reportedly at its weakest since the 2008 global financial crisis. Zombie borrowers are especially vulnerable to rising interest rates and risk collapse as the quantitative easing taps are turned off.