China's property troubles have pushed one debt indicator above levels seen in the financial crisis

cnbc.com:

BEIJING — A measure of risk levels for debt in Asia has surpassed its 2009 financial crisis high, thanks to a surge in downgrades of Chinese property developers since late last year, ratings agency Moody's said Wednesday.

Among the relatively risky category of Asian high-yield companies outside Japan that are covered by Moody's, the share with the most speculative ratings of «B3 negative» or lower has nearly doubled from last year — to a record high of 30.5% as of May, the firm said.

That's higher than the 27.3% share reached in May 2009, during the global financial crisis, the report said.

It's not clear whether the new record indicates a financial crisis is imminent.

High-yield bonds are already riskier than products deemed «investment grade,» and offer higher return but greater risk. «B3 negative» is the lowest rating for a category that denotes assets that are «speculative and are subject to high credit risk» in Moody's system.

Driving the new record high in risky ratings was a spate of downgrades on Chinese real estate developers as worries grew over their ability to repay debt.

Moody's said it issued 91 downgrades for high-yield Chinese property developers in the last nine months.

That's a record pace, the agency said, considering it issued only 56 downgrades for such companies in the 10 years ending December 2020.

Some Chinese developers' bonds have received more than one downgrade, the report noted. Names on the Moody's «B3 negative» or lower list include Evergrande, Greenland, Agile Group, Sunac, Logan, Kaisa and R&F. Evergrande entered the list in August, while several were added only in May.

«Our downgrade is a reflection of the current very tough operating environment for China property developers combined