Alicia García Herrero (Natixis) | Even with more than two years after the first outbreak of COVID-19, China, as well as the rest of the world, still faces the impact of the pandemic. While the economy has surged from the bottom since the middle of 2021 after China’s successful containment of the domestic spread of the virus, the recovery’s momentum has slowed down quite rapidly, especially since the second quarter…
Alicia García Herrero (Natixis) | The unprecedented sanctions imposed on Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine are likely to have devastating consequences. But this will depend on whether Russia manages to bypass the sanctions or, at the very least, mitigate them. One important consideration to answer this question is China’s potential role in offering a helping hand to the Russian economy. China’s economic size and financial clout,…
Alicia García Herrero (Natixis) | China’s debt-to-GDP ratio continued to decrease in Q4 2021 to 264.3% from 266.5% in Q3. Notwithstanding the deleverage path in 2021, the debt is still much higher than the pre-pandemic one (247.5% in Q4 2019). Chinese corporates contributed the most to the deleveraging process, as their debt to GDP ratio further dropped to 155.1% in Q4 2021 from 158.3% in Q3 2021. Because of the…
Alicia García Herrero (Natixis) | Chinese policy makers have been engaged in a massive regulatory crackdown for over a year. A number of sectors have been affected, starting with the tech sector, followed by the education sector. At the same time the real estate sector has also been severely affected by a specific regulatory crackdown (the three red lines) and a more general antitrust push has also taken place. In…
Luís Pinheiro de Matos (CaixaBank Research) | China’s real estate sector is often described as «the most important sector in the world» because of the importance it has amassed in recent decades in the Asian giant’s growth model. We analyse how significant a role it plays in the Chinese economy and the risks of the Evergrande effect.
Alicia García Herrero (Natixis) | Chinese economy has rebounded by 8.1% in 2021 after slumping to 2.2% in 2020. While the Q4 year-on-year growth rate was lowered to only 4%, the current growth momentum was still positive as the QoQ growth rate (seasonally adjusted) have accelerated to 1.6% in Q4 from 0.7% in Q3. However, there are signs that the Chinese economy is facing increasing challenges, raising questions on whether…
Amitrajeet A. Batabyal ( The Conversation) In December 1978, the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping introduced economic reforms that dramatically altered China’s economy by strengthening trade and cultural ties with the West. Beginning in the 1990s, these reforms set China on a trajectory to become what it is today: a nation with a dynamic and substantially market-driven economy that is also the world’s second-largest. U.S. residents have enjoyed lower-priced goods exported…
Kent Matthews ( The Conversation) | Growth in China was in fact declining well before the pandemic struck: from a peak of 15% in the second quarter of 2007 to 6% in the first three months of 2019. The nation’s growth strategy rests on four pillars. Three are frequently talked about – infrastructure, exports and consumers – while the fourth is only whispered in official circles – and that is the property sector.
Alicia García Herrero (Natixis) | The PBoC cut the Required Reserve Ratio (RRR) by 0.5 percentage points yesterday, amid the economic slowdown. This should not surprise us, as China is in the midst of a cyclical slowdown. However, the move has happened when China’s PPI and CPI have just edged up to 13.5% and 1.5% from 10.7% and 0.7% respectively in November. The message to the market is clear: avoiding…
Peter Rodgers | While providing a credible US-led alternative to the Belt and Road Initiative is desirable, the US must commit adequate financial and leadership resources to the effort. This is a good first step, but Washington must be careful not to create a new paranoia by demonizing economic and geopolitical rivals such as China and Japan to the point where it distorts priorities and leads to increased military spending rather than public investments in education, infrastructure and basic research, all of which are critical to America’s future prosperity and security.