Curbing debt leaves room for opening-up

China's once-expanding debt has been curbed under tightened governing measures and regulations, leaving more space for further financial opening-up and reforms, said Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank governor, on Friday.

"We have entered a stage of stabilizing and gradually reducing the leverage level" after financial regulators cracked down on portions of the shadow banking business, Zhou, governor of the People's Bank of China, said at a news conference during the ongoing first session of the 13th National People's Congress.

Given the regulatory improvements and risk reduction, steps toward other financial reforms would be "faster and larger", including pushing forward the yuan's internationalization and lowering market access barriers in the financial sector, he said.