diff --git a/mm/page-writeback.c b/mm/page-writeback.c
index 838a5e31394c..81a91e6f1f99 100644
--- a/mm/page-writeback.c
+++ b/mm/page-writeback.c
@@ -355,8 +355,8 @@ get_dirty_limits(long *pbackground, long *pdirty, long *pbdi_dirty,
  */
 static void balance_dirty_pages(struct address_space *mapping)
 {
-	long bdi_nr_reclaimable;
-	long bdi_nr_writeback;
+	long nr_reclaimable, bdi_nr_reclaimable;
+	long nr_writeback, bdi_nr_writeback;
 	long background_thresh;
 	long dirty_thresh;
 	long bdi_thresh;
@@ -376,11 +376,26 @@ static void balance_dirty_pages(struct address_space *mapping)
 
 		get_dirty_limits(&background_thresh, &dirty_thresh,
 				&bdi_thresh, bdi);
+
+		nr_reclaimable = global_page_state(NR_FILE_DIRTY) +
+					global_page_state(NR_UNSTABLE_NFS);
+		nr_writeback = global_page_state(NR_WRITEBACK);
+
 		bdi_nr_reclaimable = bdi_stat(bdi, BDI_RECLAIMABLE);
 		bdi_nr_writeback = bdi_stat(bdi, BDI_WRITEBACK);
+
 		if (bdi_nr_reclaimable + bdi_nr_writeback <= bdi_thresh)
 			break;
 
+		/*
+		 * Throttle it only when the background writeback cannot
+		 * catch-up. This avoids (excessively) small writeouts
+		 * when the bdi limits are ramping up.
+		 */
+		if (nr_reclaimable + nr_writeback <
+				(background_thresh + dirty_thresh) / 2)
+			break;
+
 		if (!bdi->dirty_exceeded)
 			bdi->dirty_exceeded = 1;