Global economy health at stake as China tries to hold sneeze

Hong Kong

IT used to be that when America sneezed, the world caught a cold. This time around, it's the risk of a sickly China that poses a bigger threat.

The world's second-largest economy is now trying to ward off the sniffles. While output is still growing at a pace that sees gross domestic product (GDP) double every decade, the problem remains that much of that has been fuelled by a massive build-up of credit.

Total borrowing climbed to about 260 per cent of the econo…