China's Household Debt Hits Record High

China’s household debt reached a record high last year, adding to worries that the burden of debt services could weigh on long-term consumer spending and drag on growth in the world’s second-largest economy. According to German insurer Allianz’s latest global wealth report:

“This amounts to an increase of 30 percentage points in just 10 years — no other country saw its private debt burden rising so fast,” Allianz said, with the caveat that “China needed to catch up to some extent, as Chinese private households only obtained access to bank loans in 2003.”

The report comes amid concern over the extraordinary increase in Chinese debt since the 2008 global financial crisis.

Click here for rest of article...