China’s recipe for corporate deleveraging can be described as a policy-guided shift in debt mix, according to a recent report by S&P Global Ratings. While debt leverage in the corporate segment may have largely stabilised, public and quasi-public debts are estimated to have grown much faster, at 15.8 per cent in 2017, because debt-funded infrastructure investment remains a key component for maintaining the country’s economic resilience. Meanwhile, household debts continue to increase rapidly, with strong expansion in home loans and rapid growth of consumer credit.
