The world’s second-largest economy faces an impending crisis

Chinese group Evergrande, a property developer whose troubles have contributed to China’s real estate recession, said its debt had risen to around $340 billion by the end of last year 2022.

In a notice to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Evergrande said it suffered a loss of about $81 billion in 2021-2022, with its revenue down about 50 percent in 2021.

It comes at a time when Beijing is trying to revive economic growth, which fell to 3 percent last year, the second-lowest level since the 1970s.

Regulators stepped in to oversee Evergrande’s debt restructuring, but apparently withdrew help so as not to send the wrong signal to companies to write off their debt.

The ongoing troubles of Evergrande, said to be the most indebted developer in the global real estate industry, do not bode well for the resurgence of the real estate sector, a key driver of commercial activity whose loss of momentum has affected China’s faltering recovery since the lifting of the Covid-19 lockdown. at the end of last year.

Source: AB