Chinese think tank raises debt alarm

Leverage in China has soared to alarming levels, with overall debt swelling to more than twice the size of the economy at the end of last year, a leading government-backed think tank said. The amount owed by governments, non-financial businesses and households climbed nearly 11 percentage points over the year to 228% of GDP, or RMB154tn the National Institution for Finance and Development said. The institution is among the first government-backed bodies to acknowledge the huge debt pile, and many economists say the total is still underestimated. The debt-to-GDP ratio in the US was 233% last year. According to 2015 third-quarter data from the Bank for International Settlements, emerging markets as a group had much lower levels of debt, at 175% of GDP, the South China Morning Post reports.