Little danger of a property-sector crash hurting China: ADB economist

[TOKYO} A WIDELY forecast correction in China's property markets would be unlikely to have a severe impact on the Chinese economy as a whole, recently appointed chief economist at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Wei Shang-Jin said in Tokyo on Thursday.

An expert on China, Shanghai-born Mr Wei suggested that even if the Chinese government was forced to bale out banks exposed to property-sector debt, the cost should not amount to more than several percentage points of GDP.

Former head of a working group on China in the US National Bureau of Economic Research, Mr Wei called on China to cut taxes rather than increase credit in order to maintain growth in the world's second largest economy.