diff --git a/mm/page-writeback.c b/mm/page-writeback.c
index 601a5e048d12..c1a4b32af1a7 100644
--- a/mm/page-writeback.c
+++ b/mm/page-writeback.c
@@ -1858,6 +1858,27 @@ static int balance_dirty_pages(struct bdi_writeback *wb,
 			break;
 		}
 
+		/*
+		 * Unconditionally start background writeback if it's not
+		 * already in progress. We need to do this because the global
+		 * dirty threshold check above (nr_dirty > gdtc->bg_thresh)
+		 * doesn't account for these cases:
+		 *
+		 * a) strictlimit BDIs: throttling is calculated using per-wb
+		 * thresholds. The per-wb threshold can be exceeded even when
+		 * nr_dirty < gdtc->bg_thresh
+		 *
+		 * b) memcg-based throttling: memcg uses its own dirty count and
+		 * thresholds and can trigger throttling even when global
+		 * nr_dirty < gdtc->bg_thresh
+		 *
+		 * Writeback needs to be started else the writer stalls in the
+		 * throttle loop waiting for dirty pages to be written back
+		 * while no writeback is running.
+		 */
+		if (unlikely(!writeback_in_progress(wb)))
+			wb_start_background_writeback(wb);
+
 		mem_cgroup_flush_foreign(wb);
 
 		/*