Gavekal Dragonomics

Arthur Kroeber

Feb 06th 2015

China is in for a rough year. The economy is in its most fragile state since 1998, at the nadir of the Asian financial crisis. Gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of just 6.1% in the last quarter of 2014, and most key indicators suggest that the first half of 2015 is unlikely to be much better. Industrial profits are weakening sharply, which is likely to dampen wage growth and consumption—the two bright spots over the last couple...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Research Team

Dec 03rd 2014

How is Xi Jinping doing? A year after the landmark Third Plenum at which China's leader laid out his vision for reforming China, this issue of the CEQ takes a close look at the progress of the reform program. Our expert contributors assess the achievements and the shortfalls, the winners and the losers.

Gavekal Research

Long Chen

Nov 24th 2014

First the Bank of Japan, then the European Central Bank, now comes the People’s Bank of China. On Friday evening the PBOC cut its benchmark interest rates for the first time since July 2012. The direction of the move had long been foreseen, but the timing of the announcement came as a surprise. We had expected concerns over China’s high levels of domestic debt would enable the central bank to resist pressure to cut rates until the first quarter...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Andrew Batson, Rosealea Yao

Oct 30th 2014

China’s housing market is not collapsing, but it is maturing and will decline. Our model shows that China’s housing demand is past its high-growth phase, and has been bouncing around its peak level since 2011. We project construction volume will decline 15-20% from current levels by 2025, hurting demand for steel and other construction materials.

Gavekal Research

Tom Holland

Sep 29th 2014

The inhabitants of Hong Kong were treated over the weekend to the unusual spectacle of police battling political protesters in the city’s streets. Baton charges and volleys of tear gas might be common enough tactics in New York or London, but not in Asia’s leading international financial center. The rapid escalation of the protests over the weekend and the police’s strong-arm response shocked locals, and triggered a -2% fall in the city’s...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Rosealea Yao

Sep 08th 2014

One of the paradoxes of China’s housing market is that excess supply in many areas coexists with a shortage of housing for the worst-off. We have long argued that a significant portion of the Chinese urban population is under-housed, lacking access to modern living arrangements. Given continued worries over excess housing supply in China, we recently decided to test this analysis by re-estimating the housing stock from different data sources....

Gavekal Research

Rosealea Yao, Research Team

Jul 28th 2014

A turning point in China’s housing policy has arrived, half a year into a downturn in property sales and construction. Since late June, major cities such as Hohhot, Jinan, Haikou, Tianjin and Chengdu have moved to support their housing markets. This is a change from earlier months, when local governments were more hesitant and often failed to publicize their policies, limiting their effect. The central government’s implicit approval of the new...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Thomas Gatley

Jul 07th 2014

For years now the Chinese government has been trying to make it easier for private-sector firms to borrow. Its recent measures to encourage bank lending have privileged those banks that lend more loans to (overwhelmingly private) small and medium-sized enterprises. This is a worthy goal: since private firms make much higher returns on investment than their clumsy state-owned cousins, economic growth will get a boost if private firms borrow and...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Rosealea Yao

Jun 20th 2014

Two years ago, we visited a small rural county near the southern edge of Sichuan province, whose residents and officials were able to give us some insights as to how central government policy was being implemented at the grassroots level (see Postcards From The Edge Of Sichuan). Since then, a new administration has come to power, which is trying to shake up how local government works. So we recently paid a return visit to the place we call...