These policies will limit future domestic consumption growth in the same way that they have in the past, and the greater the amount of nonperforming loans generated the tighter the constraints on consumption growth.

WSJ: China's Consumption Conundrum

Milford Bateman - a consultant in local economic development - argues there is evidence a lot of micro finance is used for consumption spending and can trap people in simply servicing loans.

BBC: Banking on eradicating poverty

As these and other policies boosted savings by constraining consumption, other policies, like those aimed at engineering massive loans to capital-intensive manufacturing at very low interest rates, forced rapid growth in domestic production.

WSJ: China's Consumption Conundrum

"Growth in household loans slowed notably from the previous quarter, while sales on credit saw a big fall amid sluggish consumption, " the bank said in a statement.

BBC: Koreans are going back to cash after their credit binge