Debt reached $244.2 trillion (£191.8 trillion), compared to $235.1 trillion a year earlier and $242.5 trillion in the second quarter, the data showed. The nominal record high stands at $247.7 trillion in the first quarter of 2018.

Among non-financial corporations, debt rose to $72.9 trillion in the third quarter of 2018 from $68.6 trillion a year earlier and a revised $71.8 trillion in the second quarter. The second-quarter figure had been initially reported as a record high $75 trillion.

As a percentage of global gross domestic product, debt of non-financial corporations ticked up to 92 percent, the highest level on record, the report said.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Bernadette Baum)