SOEs required to lower debt ratios

The central government is requiring all State-owned enterprises to lower their average ratio of liabilities to assets by 2 percentage points by 2020 from 2017 levels, underscoring its commitment to promoting deleveraging to fend off financial risk.

An asset-liability constraint mechanism will be built for SOEs to strengthen supervision over their deleveraging moves, under a guideline issued on Thursday by the State Council.

Policymakers will establish "red lines" to notify enterprises in key sectors of alarming debt levels, the guideline said.