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4 charts that show China's accelerating debt problem

Ben MoshinskyNov 28, 2016, 15:41 IST

A worker wields a hammer at a demolition site in front of new residential buildings in Hefei, Anhui province, October 19, 2013.REUTERS

China's debt to GDP ratio keeps rising.

Borrowing has helped fuel growth in China, but it's starting to lose its effectiveness.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a note to clients that China's debt to GDP rose to 276% in the third quarter this year from 249% in 2015.

Households have accelerated their borrowing faster than businesses.

"This has been mainly driven by a rapid rise in new mortgages from RMB 1.7 trillion in 2014 to RMB 4.6 trillion in the past 12 months," according to Morgan Stanley.

With the debt overhang growing, the economic benefits of borrowing more are shrinking. It took nearly eight units of debt to produce one unit of GDP growth in 2016, compared with around four in 2014.

Here's how it looks in the charts: