Gavekal Dragonomics
August 16, 2018
China’s government is making a determined effort to co-opt private technology companies to help modernize its military. The pressure to support this drive, known as “military-civil fusion,” creates new political risks for tech companies and their investors: they could face more Chinese government interference and a political backlash from abroad.
Gavekal Dragonomics
August 14, 2018
China's data releases for July showed that the easing measures of the last few months have yet to have an impact on the real economy, with industrial value-added, fixed-asset investment and retail sales all slowing. Further monetary easing measures will follow. But as Long argues, they are unlikely to lead to a major increase in credit growth.
Gavekal Dragonomics
August 9, 2018
China this year ordered central SOEs to bring down their asset-liability ratio down by 2pp by 2020. That might sound like a modest change, but it means doing much more deleveraging in the next two years than in the last two. With policymakers now starting to ease policy, this aggressive hard target for deleveraging will likely become a soft one.
Gavekal Research
July 24, 2018
Will we see any break in the escalation of Trump’s trade wars this year—either because one of the targets capitulates and tries to strike a deal with the US, or because blowback within the US against the negative impact of trade wars gets strong enough that Trump needs to beat a tactical retreat? The answer is a firm no, on both counts.
Gavekal Research
July 12, 2018
In this call Arthur Kroeber outlined his view on why President Donald Trump’s trade war is not a bluff, and is likely to escalate ahead of the US midterm elections in November; Andrew Batson explained the macro-level effects caused by all this uncertainty; and Chen Long discussed the market impacts in China and the country’s likely response.
Gavekal Dragonomics
July 2, 2018
The US may have backed down from imposing new restrictions on Chinese investment in the US. But it would be wrong to see this as a de-escalation of the US-China trade conflict. In this piece, Andrew argues that the tariffs taking effect Friday will mark the end of two decades of normal US trade with China, and the return of political uncertainty.
Gavekal Research
June 21, 2018
When the White House rattled global markets earlier this week with its threat markedly to escalate the international trade war, mainland Chinese stock markets were hit the worst. That is not surprising, considering that the US administration’s threats were targeted specifically at imports from China.
Gavekal Dragonomics
June 15, 2018
China’s credit growth slowed to a new low in May, but the deceleration in real economic activity remains a moderate one—although sharp contrasts are now appearing among different indicators. In this piece, Chen Long explains why credit growth is likely to continue to slow, and how that will affect different parts of the economy.
Gavekal Research
May 31, 2018
Chinese growth surprised on the upside in the early part of the year, but Andrew thinks that a gradual loss of altitude is now unfolding. This is mainly due to slowing property market activity, which increasingly displays late-cycle characteristics.
Gavekal Research
July 4, 2018
After its biggest downward move since 2015, where is the renminbi headed next? Since mid-June it has fallen by over -4% against the US dollar to CNY6.63, and the trade-weighted CFETS index has also declined by -3% from its June peak. This has led to some commentary that China is pushing down its currency to prepare for a trade war with the US.
Gavekal Dragonomics
May 15, 2018
After a sharp decline in March and April, Chinese onshore bond yields have bounced back over the past three weeks. But based on the latest economic data and policy signals, Chen Long thinks that bond yields have further to fall. Growth is continuing to slow, and the central bank seems comfortable with a slightly more accommodative stance.
Gavekal Dragonomics
May 1, 2018
The strategy behind China’s financial overhaul is becoming clear. It is helping banks by allowing an extended transition to a new set of rules. But prosecutions of executives are also ramping up. This is the opposite of what some Western countries did after the 2008 crisis: people, not institutions, are paying the price for financial risk-taking.
Gavekal Dragonomics
July 13, 2018
China’s real-estate developers are getting hammered in stock and credit markets. But the largest of these firms are well-placed to ride out current strains, and are the main beneficiaries of accelerating consolidation and government policy. As the Chinese property market matures, the winners are likely to be a small group of the largest companies.
Gavekal Dragonomics
June 29, 2018
China's government, worried about continued rapid growth in housing prices, is now reconsidering a major program for subsidizing housing sales. As Rosealea explains, this policy change shows the government is still more focused on curbing frothy housing prices than on boosting growth, and will weigh on housing sales in the rest of 2018.
Gavekal Dragonomics
May 29, 2018
Chinese government policy for the property market is turning tighter, a shift that will weigh on housing sales and construction activity in the rest of 2018. But Rosealea cautions against overreacting, arguing that the downcycle in property is still likely to be a shallow one, and that policy will loosen again once market conditions weaken.
Gavekal Dragonomics
July 9, 2018
Xiaomi and other Chinese smartphone makers are among the first Chinese consumer-goods companies to have gained significant market share outside of China. In this piece, Dan explains where their success has come from and assesses their prospects: Chinese smartphones may not displace Apple and Samsung, but can limit their gains in emerging markets.
Gavekal Dragonomics
June 8, 2018
Now that the US has backed away from putting crippling sanctions on Chinese telecom-equipment firm ZTE, China looks well-placed to achieve its dreams for 5G, the next wave of mobile technology. Huawei and ZTE may be effectively blocked from the US market, but they are well-placed to grab a significant share of the global market for 5G.
Gavekal Dragonomics
June 4, 2018
Our first DeepChina report takes a close look at Beijing's efforts to exert tighter control over the internet, the flow of commercial data, and the security of its technological infrastructure. China ia nor alone in toughening regulation, but its efforts are far more expansive, and raise more serious concerns for multinational firms.
Gavekal Dragonomics
June 20, 2018
China’s rapid shift to online shopping is emptying malls and forcing retailers to close hundreds of stores. But at the same time, the big internet companies are investing billions to seek new growth from brick-and-mortar stores. In this piece, Ernan explains how Chinese retail is restructuring and where the growth opportunities are.
Gavekal Dragonomics
April 20, 2018
China has moved to rid itself of a longstanding statistical embarrassment, replacing its discredited unemployment data with a new survey based on international standards. But as Ernan explains, the old problems have not gone away: the new jobless rate is still implausibly low and stable, and likely still subject to political manipulation.
Gavekal Dragonomics
December 7, 2017
China’s busy and ambitious parents have driven a huge boom in private preschools, with the number of students roughly tripling over the past decade. But the sector is now clouded by allegations of child abuse, which will only strengthen a shift to tougher regulation and public provision of preschools. For now, the private preschool boom is over.
Gavekal Research
July 11, 2018
Chinese equities have finally had a few solid trading sessions after their steep decline in the latter half of June. But the CSI 300 index is still down -14% year-to-date, and betting on a rebound from here looks unwise.
Gavekal Dragonomics
January 29, 2018
2017 was a great year for China’s industrial sector, with profits up 21%, but the gains were highly concentrated in mining, metals and materials. This pattern has a mix of important consequences, as Thomas explains in this piece: it’s good news for financial risk, less good news for households, and bad news for corporate investment.
Gavekal Dragonomics
January 9, 2018
Amid the ups and downs of China's recent investment cycles, one trend has stayed constant: the slowdown in private-sector investment. In this piece, Thomas shows that a key problem is state firms routinely delaying payments to their private suppliers, forcing them to hold huge reserves of working capital that can’t be productively invested.
Gavekal Dragonomics
April 4, 2018
It’s been a wild winter for China’s steel industry, with huge swings in output and prices. The main culprit is the aggressive official campaign to reduce air pollution—and the industry’s creative responses to it. Their back-and-forth has not hurt underlying growth much, but the resulting volatility in steel prices is not going away.
Gavekal Dragonomics
March 28, 2018
The rebound in commodity prices since 2016 has been a boon for much of China’s industrial sector—but coal-burning power plants have been big losers. Coal prices cannot go much higher without causing serious financial distress. This means that policy should now be shifting to favor power producers, by ensuring coal prices do not climb further.
Gavekal Dragonomics
February 22, 2018
What are the odds that China has a surprise jump in inflation this year? In China, surges in the CPI are usually driven by food—particularly highly cyclical pork prices. But while food inflation is likely to turn positive this year, Ernan argues that the odds of an inflation spike are low, as farm consolidation has tamed the pork price cycle.
Gavekal Dragonomics
May 23, 2018
The story of China’s urbanization has long been the migration of people from the country to the cities. Not anymore: as Ernan explains, rural migration has slowed sharply, and is being replaced by the reclassification of rural areas into urban ones. Policymakers now prefer this “local urbanization,” even though it delivers less income growth.
Gavekal Dragonomics
March 20, 2018
China’s legislature has approved the creation of a national “supervision” system, an arm of government equal to the executive, legislative and judicial branches that is charged with overseeing the vast public sector. As Yanmei explains, the new system transforms Xi Jinping’s signature anti-corruption crusade into something even more ambitious.
Gavekal Research
March 19, 2018
China’s top economic team for the next five years was released this morning, and the theme seems to be “steady as she goes”, with a vote of confidence for experts in their fields. Chen Long has looked at the list, which includes a new PBOC governor, and offers his take on what this means for financial policy in the years ahead.
Gavekal Research
June 13, 2018
After the Trump-Kim summit, North Korea's commitment to denuclearization still remains a fiction. Future negotiations will be mostly about stringing along the US administration. While Washington and Pyongyang talk, Beijing and Seoul will continue to try to normalize the existence of a nuclear-armed North Korea and cement peace.
Gavekal Dragonomics
June 7, 2018
Ominous clouds are gathering over Taiwan, as China steps up displays of military force and its campaign of international isolation. Could this escalate into a replay of the 1995-6 Taiwan Strait crisis, or something even worse? In this piece, Yanmei assesses the rising risks, but argues that military conflict is still a remote possibility.
Gavekal Dragonomics
May 9, 2018
It is still possible that the US and China will strike a deal to avert threatened tariffs. But as Arthur argues in this piece, any deal will be mostly cosmetic. The tension between the two is not mainly about trade, but about China’s challenge to US global dominance. The US will almost certainly keep trying to counter China’s efforts to gain power.
Gavekal Dragonomics
November 28, 2017
In our annual review of the Chinese consumer, Ernan outlines the short-term outlook and longer-term trends in household spending. This chartbook explains why consumption growth has been a bit disappointing in 2017, why the outlook for 2018 is better, what are the drivers of consumption upgrading, and how the transition to online is playing out.
Gavekal Dragonomics
November 2, 2017
In her annual overview, Rosealea summarizes the outlook for the housing market and construction activity in China. This concise chartbook reviews the drivers of growth in 2017, digs into the key indicators and explains the core scenario for 2018: a modest correction in housing sales and prices, and a gradual slowdown in construction activity.
Gavekal Dragonomics
August 17, 2017
This chartbook outlines the recent core trends in China’s corporate sector. There has been a major rebound in revenues and profits, but most firms are using this to repair balance sheets rather than boost capex. So leverage is down and debt servicing ability is up. But the profit cycle is now likely at its peak, as is firms’ ability to deleverage.
Gavekal Research
July 17, 2018
China has an ambitious industrial upgrading plan, called Made in China 2025, which targets Chinese leadership in about 30 technological segments. In this video interview Dan explains how the government aims to achieve this, how this plan differs from previous Chinese policy goals, and whether it is likely to succeed.
Gavekal Research
July 12, 2018
In this call Arthur Kroeber outlined his view on why President Donald Trump’s trade war is not a bluff, and is likely to escalate ahead of the US midterm elections in November; Andrew Batson explained the macro-level effects caused by all this uncertainty; and Chen Long discussed the market impacts in China and the country’s likely response.
Gavekal Research
April 18, 2018
During yesterday’s monthly call, Arthur Kroeber addressed rising geoeconomic and geopolitical tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.