Some Global Investors See Fresh Worries in an Old Problem: China
The bubble just keeps getting bigger.”
China’s fate has major sway over global markets, given its longtime role as a growth driver —
and investors may soon have a bigger stake in the ups and downs of Chinese stocks.
By MICHAEL SCHUMANJUNE 18, 2017
BEIJING — While investors have been preoccupied with President Trump
and chaos in Washington, nerve-rattling elections in Europe and the uncertainty created by Federal Reserve policy and Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, a once-familiar — and possibly bigger — risk to global markets has been bubbling in the background.
Two years after China first set off investor alarm bells worldwide with a stock market crash, a slumping currency
and concerns over rising debt, many investors have put those concerns out of mind.
The research company Capital Economics, in a June report, warned
that debt in China “has risen far faster than in almost any other major economy on record,” and that its continued buildup was the “biggest risk facing emerging Asia.”
Over the last several months, the government has tried to reverse this trend, helping slow credit growth.