China Can Boost Consumer Spending By Reducing Debt Burden: Herald

China should consider helping households reduce their pressure to pay debt by lowering interest rates or cutting their burden of covering their own social security, and subsidizing consumers to promote spending, said the 21st Century Business Herald in an editorial. Household debt rose to 72.2% of GDP in 2021, up from 2012’s 33.8%, adding to residents’ repayment pressure and limiting their purchasing power, the newspaper said. Promoting consumption should not only rely on the recovery of the housing market, which may increase the leverage ratio and crowd out other spending, the newspaper added.