China makes steady progress in deleveraging: Economist

BEIJING - China has made steady progress in deleveraging and the country's leverage ratio will gradually be lowered, the Economic Daily has reported.

"China has entered a stage of stable leverage as the country's deleveraging efforts have delivered primary effects," Liu Shijin, vice-president of the China Development Research Foundation, a government think tank, told the Economic Daily.

Since 2017, the growth of China's leverage ratio has slowed down substantially. The leverage ratio in 2017 was 2.4 percentage points higher than 2016. The growth was 10.9 percentage points lower than the average annual growth rate from 2012 to 2016, according to Liu.

The slowdown came after rapid growth of corporate profits and fiscal revenues boosted by the supply-side structural reform, the effective implementation of a prudent, neutral monetary policy and stronger financial regulation, said Liu, who is also a member of the monetary policy committee of the People's Bank of China.

He added that China's leverage structure has become optimized with corporate, government and personal leverage ratios all lowered.

Liu believes China will be able to continue stabilizing its macro leverage and gradually lower the leverage ratio, citing supportive factors such as a quality-oriented economic shift, strengthened financial supervision, and progress in cutting overcapacity.

"The economic transition from high-speed expansion to high-quality development requires focus on corporate profitability, employment and development stability and sustainability, which will help lower the leverage ratio in the future," he said.