Deleveraging

The reduction of debt relative to income or assets, at a company, a sector or an economy.

At the corporate level it happens through repayment, through asset sales, or through equity issuance, and the choice tells you a great deal about the board's confidence.

At the economy level it is slow and painful, because one entity repaying debt reduces another's income, which is why coordinated deleveraging produces recessions.

The Indian corporate sector spent much of the last decade doing this after an investment boom, and the recovery in returns on capital that followed is the visible result.