Evergrande Crisis Could Be a Canary in the Coal Mine

A cleaner sweeps in Evergrande City on Sept. 24, 2021, in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Evergrande, China's largest property developer, is facing a liquidity crisis with total debts of around $300 billion. The problems faced by the company could impact China’s economy, and the global economy at large.（Getty Images)

News Analysis

As Chinese real estate behemoth Evergrande, saddled with $300 billion in liabilities, dances ever closer to default, questions about the health of the broader domestic property market have taken on greater urgency.

Property and Economic Slowdown

Recent data have confirmed that Evergrande’s debt crisis has sent jitters through China’s property market. Home sales plummeted about 17 percent for the year to September, following last month’s 19.7 percent fall, according to recent data by China’s National Bureau of Statistics.