China slowdown worries still uppermost

A sharp slowdown in the Chinese economy was the biggest concern among financial experts polled at a Fitch Ratings conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday, as they fretted about the wider repercussions, not least in Indonesia and Australia.

Of the 90 delegates present at Fitch's Global Banking Conference, 43% cited a sharp Chinese economic slowdown as the biggest risk to Asian bank credit, followed by high levels of domestic indebtedness with 25%, Federal Reserve policy tapering on 22% and domestic politics with 10%.

Although a rapid deceleration of Chinese growth is not a base-case scenario for many analysts, the risk cannot be entirely ruled out in...