Mixed signals and long-term anxiety over China’s economy
A summary of the top news in Chinese business and technology for June 19, 2017. Part of the daily The China Project newsletter, a convenient package of China’s business, political, and cultural news delivered to your inbox for free. Subscribe here.
The New York Times reports (paywall), “In a survey released by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, fund managers in May named China the biggest potential source for an unpleasant surprise for global markets for the first time since January 2016.” China’s rapidly rising debt load — 257 percent of GDP at the end of 2016, up from 152 percent in 2007, and far beyond the 184 percent average for emerging economies — is a central source of concern to investors, the Times notes. The high debt level in China’s economy was also precisely the reason that credit ratings agency Moody’s cited when it downgraded the country’s rating in May, for the first time since 1989.
Nevertheless, most of the mainstream investing world remains cautiously optimistic about China’s economy. The stock-index compiler MSCI is forecast to have a decent chance of adding a selection of China’s stocks into its key, influential benchmark this week, and in March, Goldman Sachs “recommended investors increase their holdings of Chinese stocks, citing improved economic growth, stable policies and other positives,” the Times said. One of those positives, for the time being anyway, is that policymakers are “likely to do whatever they can to prevent drastic shifts in asset values” ahead of the important Communist Party meetings to be held later this year.
- In China, a robot has started delivering packages to people / Quartz
“Designed by JD, the white, four-wheeled droid can carry five packages at once and travel 20 km (12.4 miles) if fully charged.” - JD.com chief Richard Liu sees drone delivery as the way to reach China’s rural consumers / CNBC
- Chinese state oil giants take petrol price battle to the pumps / Reuters
“Such basement prices are rare for Sinopec…and PetroChina.” - China’s home prices increase in fewer cities as curbs bite / Bloomberg
- Life and death in Apple’s forbidden city / The Guardian
Brian Merchant takes a look inside the infamous Foxconn factory in Longhua. - How the Communist Party controls China’s state-owned industrial titans / SCMP
- How can Quora make money? Chinese Q&A websites have the answer / SCMP
- Chinese bankers flock to Hong Kong as expats retreat / Reuters
