Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said in a letter obtained Friday that chances of an economic crisis in China were low, but that the possibility of a "hard landing" for the Chinese economy could not be dismissed. "We believe that the chance of a Chinese economic crisis is very low for the foreseeable future," Bernanke wrote in an Aug. 30 letter to Senate Banking Committee chairman Richard Shelby. "Although the banking sector is burdened with an enormous and probably growing stock of problematic loans, the government possesses sizable resources and is unlikely to allow the banking system to fail," Bernanke told the Alabama Republican. "However, we do not entirely discount the possibility of a 'hard landing,' in the form of significantly slower growth, as authorities attempt to reduce investment growth from its current rapid pace."

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