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In fact, it is hard to predict how many firms might struggle. The current levels of corporate debt are not inherently unsustainable, but certainly ends there. -Economist-
What's the meaning of "but certainty ends there"?
I understood it as 'the current levels of corporate debt are sustainable at its uppermost limit, and no more debt is possible. Is this correct?
There is a typo in the question - but "certainty" ends there.
Now there is no need for an answer I guess.
Still, it means that further predictions about corporate debts are not certain.
I am afraid that the quotation, as trasncribed, is entirely unclear. It might mean 'the increase in corporate borrowing will unless reversed end in unsustainable debt'.
Since 'The Economist' is not given to basic errors like plural subject and singular verb, I surmise that a misreading has crept in somewhere between the author and your quotation. If (as is probable) certainly should read certainty it becomes an assertion of honest doubt, as in Dan's comment: if it should be inserted before certainly, my reading becomes more likely, though it is still not a good sentence.
