According to insiders, the ailing Chinese real estate company Evergrande has paid interest payments on a yuan bond. Subsidiary Hengda Real Estate Group transferred money to meet a $ 19 million payment due this Tuesday, said four people familiar with the matter. However, the group continues to fear investors in dollar bonds of the group. According to one of the insiders, Evergrande with its limited resources must primarily keep an eye on the domestic market. Because much more is at stake for China's financial system.

Evergrande sits on a mountain of debt equivalent to more than $ 300 billion and has already missed several deadlines for interest payments due to bondholders. Given the size of the debt, there are concerns that a collapse of the company could spark a conflagration in China's real estate sector. A grace period of 30 days will soon expire for a bond interest payment due in September. Evergrande had already let a third round of due coupon payments elapse last week.

The Evergrande crisis has sparked fears of possible spillover effects on the financial markets in Europe.

In the back of their minds for many investors is the experience of the financial crisis of 2008, when the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers around the world tore down the financial markets.

France's central bank governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau tried on Tuesday to allay such worries.

History is not about to repeat itself, said Villeroy de Galhau when asked: "I think that Evergrande is primarily a Chinese problem," said the councilor of the European Central Bank (ECB).

"There will be no contagion outside of China." Evergrande is a serious problem for Chinese authorities.