The US subprime mortgage crisis 美国次贷危机

The US subprime mortgage crisis has lead to plunging property prices, a slowdown in the US economy, and billions in losses by banks. It stems from a fundamental change in the way mortgages are funded.  As a Chinese learner, do you want to know how to say “subprime mortgage crisis ” in Chinese?

Chinese Xinhua News Agency also reported:

The further impact of US subprime mortgage crisis on China’s economy and monetary policy cannot be underestimated, central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan warned Thursday. 央行行长周小川周四提醒说，美国次贷危机对于中国经济和货币政策的进一步影响不可低估。

subprime mortgage crisis
次 贷  危机
cì dài wēijī

次贷危机 (cìdài wēijī) is an abbreviation for 次级房贷危机 (cì jí - fáng dài - wēijī). Here are the meaning word by word:

次级 cìjí, subprime
房贷 fángdài, mortgage
危机 wēijī, crisis

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贷款 dàikuǎn, loan (noun. verb)

For the key character in this phrase, it is interesting to see the structure of the Chinese character “贷 (dài)” and make yourself easily understood:  The upper part  of “贷 (dài)”  means “代替(daiti) replace” and the lower part means “贝(bei) money”. So if you want to borrow money from a bank, you’ll have to mortgage some property in replacement according to the relevant regulations.

For example:

She applies all her money to her mortgage.
她用她所有的钱用来付抵押贷款。

He will have to mortgage his land for a loan.
 他不得不将土地抵押来申请贷款。

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 Here is the news report from Xinhua News Agency:

The further impact of U.S. subprime mortgage crisis on China’s economy and monetary policy cannot be underestimated, central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan warned early in March.

 ”There will be further indirect impact from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis on China’s economy in the future. It cannot be underestimated since what lies ahead is far beyond previous experiences,” said Zhou, governor of the People’s Bank of China.

He made the remarks at a press conference held on the sidelines of the annual session of China’s top legislature.

He said the changes of global economy and international trade caused by the downturn of U.S. economy will affect China’s economy in different phases.

Meanwhile, the successive interest rate cuts by U.S. Federal Reserve “will also affect China’s interest rate and monetary policy since the interest rates of different countries now have closer ties than before,” he said.

On the other hand, he believed the direct impact from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis on China’s economy was limited since the proportion of China’s subprime mortgage investment was rather small.