October 18, 2021: -On Friday, the People’s Bank of China said that indebted developer China Evergrande is its case and that most real estate businesses in the country are stable.

Property giant Evergrande has $300 billion in liabilities and missed payment yet to investors in U.S. dollar-denominated debt on October 11. The developer ranks second in China by sales, prompting some fallout concerns similar to a “Lehman Moment.” Economists have noted that Evergrande’s extensive land holdings and physical properties set it apart from the U.S. investment bank’s financial assets.

According to a CNBC translation, the risks posed by Evergrande are “controllable,” Zou Lan, director of the People’s Bank of China’s financial markets department, said in Mandarin at a press conference Friday.

“China Evergrande Group’s problems in the real estate industry are an individual phenomenon,” he said, noting that property prices have remained stable. “Most real estate businesses are operating stably and have good financial indicators, and the real estate industry overall is healthy.”

According to Moody’s estimates, real estate and related industries account for about a quarter of China’s GDP. In late August, the central bank and other authorities held a rare meeting with Evergrande executives and told the company to resolve its debt issues.

A few days later, the developer warned investors of potential default. There has been news of Evergrande selling parts of its business to raise cash in the weeks since.

Zou added Friday that authorities would protect individual consumers when it came to their house purchases and provide financial support for the resumption of construction.

Many new apartments in China are sold to consumers ahead of completion. This means that Evergrande’s financial troubles and incomplete projects have left many buyers with their savings gone or large mortgages and no clarity on when or if their apartments will be completed.

The central bank did not indicate Friday that significant changes to monetary policy were ahead. The department head, Sun Guofeng, told reporters that the PBoC would continue to implement ordinary monetary policy, and he added that factors like inflation were controllable.