An elderly man walks past a bank branch in Beijing's Central Business District (CBD) in Beijing, China, 20 April 2026. Photo by WU HAO / EPA
June 29 (Asia Today) -- China's combined government, corporate and household debt has risen above 300% of gross domestic product, while the prolonged property downturn and increasing household defaults are raising concerns about financial stress in the world's second-largest economy.
China's macro leverage ratio, a measure of total debt relative to economic output, increased 11.8 percentage points to 302.3% in 2025, according to a report by a research institute affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The country's heavy dependence on borrowing has become particularly visible in its property sector, where developers accumulated large liabilities during years of rapid construction and rising home prices.
China Evergrande Group reported total liabilities of 2.58 trillion yuan, about $382 billion, at the end of 2021. The figure was comparable to the annual economic output of some midsize countries.
