BEIJING — China’s overall leverage level is “not very high”, central bank officials said on March 10, while voicing concerns over excessive corporate debt level.

Leverage ratio of non-financial corporations is relatively high by global standard, Yi Gang, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), told a news conference on the sidelines of the annual legislative session.

China has noticed the problem of rising debt level and will work to stabilize the overall leverage ratio while adjusting the leverage structure concerning debts of households, government and enterprises, he said.

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the PBOC, said measures should be taken to keep enterprises with excessive debt ratio under control, and that the financial system should not provide unnecessary support to such enterprises.

Zhou said he does not expect immediate effects from efforts in corporate deleveraging given the existing debt amount.