Anyone looking for signs of coming strains on Asia Inc as the end of easy central bank money looms needs look no further than the voracious borrowing by Chinese companies in the US dollar bond markets.
The Bank for International Settlements estimates that foreign currency loans in China grew 35 per cent in the 12 months to March this year – more than twice the rate for renminbi loan growth, and much of that in US dollars.
For some, this is the classic “canary in the coal mine” warning of problems just around the corner. Bryant Edwards, a lawyer with law firm Latham & Watkins, says the situation is “scarily reminiscent” of Europe in 2001, when the high-yield market was similarly dominated by telecoms and IT companies that subsequently crashed. “It really worries me that there is so much concentration in this sector,” he says.