China feeling pinch of credit crunch

CHINA'S effort to rebalance its economy has a mirror image in finance and it's called credit crunch.

This week, the global industry grouping for finance professionals, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), declared that "the long-predicted credit crunch in China has well and truly arrived", as it reported the tightest supply of growth capital in at least two years and sharp falls in business investment in capital and staff.

ACCA's stance is supported by its findings from a new quarterly Global Economic Conditions Survey, the world's largest regular economic survey of accountants. It asserts that "China's credit crunch bites in the third quarter, but nightmare scenarios have yet to play out".