The collapse faced by the Chinese real estate sector is heavier than the one that took place in the U.S. during the global crisis of 2008, Business Insider reports the words of the head of the hedge fund Hayman Capital's Kyle Bass. This segment plays an important role in China's economy, accounting for about 1/4 of its GDP. A series of defaults that befell the industry has broken the basic structure of the country's economy, the expert stated.

The economic upswing in the PRC, observed before the coronavirus pandemic, was ensured by the lack of regulation of the real estate market, which overly relied on borrowed funds for growth. Now virtually all Chinese real estate developers, both state-owned and listed, are insolvent; the combined debt of the two largest of them, Evergrande and Country Garden, exceeds $500 billion, Bass noted. The scale of this crisis poses a threat to the entire Chinese economy.