Gavekal Dragonomics

Long Chen

Jan 03rd 2018

China is set for another year of decent growth in 2018. The latest set of policy conclaves have re-affirmed the broad policy direction: more emphasis on the quality of growth than its speed, and continued efforts in the "three key battles" against financial risk, poverty and pollution. The main financial goals are to cut corporate debt/equity ratios rather than to reduce overall national leverage.

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Louis Gave

Dec 19th 2017

Today, with European growth humming along and Beijing having (again) shown an ability to keep China’s economy on a sustained expansion path, no one seems fazed about a possible economic downturn. Apart from the UK (where the obsession is Brexit), concern centers on geopolitical risks. Yet depending on their region, investors are worrying about very different things.

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Louis Gave

Dec 15th 2017

The apparent glide path into year-end suggests that 2018 should offer up more of the same seen in 2017. Louis does not rule out a continuation of this “Goldilocks” scenario, but worries that global inflation could be brewing in unexpected quarters at a time when frenzied trading in speculative assets such as bitcoin produces countervailing responses from policymakers. In this wide-ranging tour across the investment landscape he asks whether, in...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Arthur Kroeber

Dec 12th 2017

The China Economic Quarterly will cease publication with this issue, which also marks its 20th anniversary. CEQ started life as a newsletter for a small coterie of executives and observers interested in what was then a peripheral bit of the world economy. As China became more important and information about it in more demand, we built the Dragonomics research service around it. Today China is crucial in any discussion of global affairs, and the...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Barry Naughton

Dec 12th 2017

China’s economy has grown faster than even the biggest optimists imagined two decades ago. Yet social and political change has lagged behind, while policy has become less reformist and more statist. As Beijing pours ever more resources into low-productivity prestige projects, the economic future is unlikely to be as bright as the past.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Joerg Wuttke

Dec 12th 2017

The China that foreign businesses operate in today is immensely different from the one they ventured into 20 years ago. Challenges have multiplied for MNCs along with China’s economic and political rise.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Angel Hsu

Dec 12th 2017

At long last, Beijing is getting serious about tackling the huge environmental problems caused by breakneck growth. Much more improvement is needed to clean up China’s environmental record both at home and abroad.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Pallavi Aiyar

Dec 12th 2017

Drawing a comparison between Asia’s two giants is tempting, but differences outnumber similarities. Despite the appeal of China’s economic model, there is little chance that Asia’s oldest democracy will follow in Beijing’s footsteps.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Melanie Hart

Dec 12th 2017

China still oscillates between a desire to promote consensus and collaboration on the international stage, and powerful hegemonic and self-interested urges. More concerted international efforts will be needed to make sure the former prevails.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Arthur Kroeber, Joe Studwell, Barry Naughton, James Kynge, Joerg Wuttke, Simon Cartledge , Peter Lovelock, Yukon Huang, Angel Hsu, Alec Ash, Pallavi Aiyar, Richard McGregor, Melanie Hart

Dec 12th 2017

In this final issue of China Economic Quarterly, an all-star cast of contributors takes a look back at how the country has changed since 1997, and a look forward at how China, and its global impact, might evolve in the next couple of decades. The basic lesson is that it has never paid to underestimate China’s growth potential and capacity for change.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Ernan Cui

Dec 07th 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 Dragonomics

Thomas Gatley

Dec 05th 2017

Can China manage corporate deleveraging without a credit crunch? Leverage ratios improved in 2015 and 2016, but progress has been more mixed in 2017, as companies borrowed more but raised less new equity. In 2018, Thomas expects stable or modestly deteriorating leverage ratios, with slowing growth somewhat offset by recovering equity issuance.

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Anatole Kaletsky

Dec 04th 2017

As equity markets everywhere continue to trade higher, money managers are getting increasingly nervous about how long the rally can last. In December’s Strategy Monthly, Anatole argues that we are still only half-way through a secular bull market that can last through the end of the decade. With further US rate hikes on the cards, barring any nasty surprises non-US markets are likely to outperform going forward. The only fly in the ointment is...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Ernan Cui

Nov 28th 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 Research

Udith Sikand, Long Chen

Nov 24th 2017

A month ago, India outlined a US$32bn plan to fix its publicly-controlled banks’ bad debt problem, sparking a more than 30% rally in their share prices. The plan remains under wraps, but the “round tripping” approach will see deposits lent to the government as recapitalization bonds and then injected back into banks as fresh capital. The question is whether India’s effort is credible enough for banks to both write off debt and have enough...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Long Chen

Nov 21st 2017

For the first time, China is to bring its highly heterogeneous RMB100trn asset management industry under a single regulatory umbrella. New rules published last week promise to increase transparency, curtail leverage and reduce complexity and hidden risks, especially in the booming business in so-called “wealth management products”. However, writes Chen Long, the draft regulations contain a number of omissions, ambiguities and loopholes which, if...

Gavekal Research

Anatole Kaletsky

Nov 16th 2017

On Monday Anatole outlined his fundamental reasons to believe that the world is enjoying a global bull market that still has years to run. Today he reviews the investment recommendations that flow from his thesis, and examines how investors can best play the unprecedented divergence of the US business cycle from the cycles in Europe and the emerging markets.

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Long Chen

Nov 13th 2017

Over the next five years Beijing says it will progressively relax—and eventually scrap—the restrictions it currently imposes on foreign ownership of Chinese financial institutions. In practical terms, this is unlikely to prove a great game-changer for the industry, but it is still a significant move with positive implications for Chinese equities.

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Anatole Kaletsky

Nov 13th 2017

It was almost five years ago that Anatole started to shout loudly that the US equity market had achieved a clear breakout from its more than decade long bear market trading range. His advice has been to stick with the trend. In light of this year’s near across-the-board upward moves in risk assets globally, it would be tempting to back away from this positioning. However, in this piece he argues that the bull market is now going global and so it...

Gavekal Research

Louis Gave

Nov 08th 2017

The traffic has been one-way. Since mid-August, the Philly semiconductors index is up 23%, the Nikkei 225 by 18%, the S&P energy index by 14% and the S&P materials index by 10%. In other words, all “deep-cyclicals” and “price monetizers” are ripping higher. So what to make of this?

Gavekal Dragonomics

Long Chen

Nov 07th 2017

The Chinese economy has experienced a nice cyclical recovery since 2016, but now most forecasters are expecting a loss of momentum in 2018. So how is this slowdown likely to play out? In this piece Chen Long lays out his case for a gradual cooling in both real and nominal growth that will not spook global markets.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Rosealea Yao

Nov 02nd 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.

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Will Denyer

Nov 01st 2017

For decades fixed income and equity markets have enjoyed a secular bull market, propelled higher by low real long term interest rates, depressed by a glut of global savings. In this Strategy Monthly, Will Denyer updates his Capital Provider Ratio, a powerful demographic tool which indicates that the growth of global excess savings has peaked, and that the glut will soon begin to dry up, with far-reaching consequences for global asset markets.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Thomas Gatley, Andrew Batson

Oct 24th 2017

China’s business cycle indicators are sending mixed signals in 2017: PMI surveys show a steady acceleration, even though housing is cooling, while the official indicator of industrial value-added has been strangely volatile. In this piece, we clear up the confusion, and show that industry is indeed tracking the gradual slowdown in construction.

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Andrew Batson

Oct 19th 2017

In his first term, Xi Jinping has been nothing if not ambitious. So it is not surprising that, in a speech to mark the start of his second term, he announced a series of ambitious goals. It is more surprising that, in Xi’s “new era” of Chinese socialism, the pursuit of national greatness will no longer be centered around economic growth.

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Arthur Kroeber

Oct 12th 2017

The 19th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party will decide whether Xi Jinping emerges as the head of a more “presidential” system of government, or whether the current collective system holds sway. Either way, Arthur argues that hopes for a new burst of reform in the Congress’s aftermath are probably mistaken.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Thomas Gatley

Oct 05th 2017

In 2017, China is on track to host a record-setting number of IPOs, mostly by private firms. Big state firms may still dominate stock market indexes, but they are no longer the only option for investors. The number of Chinese private firms large and liquid enough to be of interest to investors is ten times larger than it was just five years ago.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Long Chen

Sep 28th 2017

In our latest quarterly chartbook, Chen Long reviews the mixed signals from China’s economy and markets. While the cycle has peaked, the government has still found ways to prolong industrial reflation. But economic growth and bond yields will head down from here, though gradually, as the tightening of financial regulation has been well managed.

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Udith Sikand

Sep 21st 2017

Yesterday, the “world’s central bank” confirmed that it will reverse its quantitative easing policy and likely raise interest rates in December and then three times in 2018. On the same day, the benchmark emerging market index nudged higher and is only a whisker off a six year high. Ordinarily, Federal Reserve tightening is terrible news for EMs, especially for those economies with the temerity to simultaneously try policy easing. Yet this is...

Gavekal Research

Charles Gave

Sep 19th 2017

Over the years my research has focused on broad concepts which have been applied in many situations and lots of reports. These include ideas such as the disruptive power of platform companies, assets whose value comes from scarcity rather than efficiency, or the effect of firms running on Schumpeterian, Malthusian or Ricardian principles. Once in a while, however, I do get specific and make investment calls. Having had a little time this week, I...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Arthur Kroeber

Sep 15th 2017

China’s financial system has its troubles, but a large-scale crisis is unlikely. Localized problems among poorly run, small-scale city and rural banks are the bigger risk.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Long Chen

Sep 15th 2017

Financial deregulation has seen a cartel of national state-owned banks give way to a bewildering array of local banks, non-bank lenders, wealth management products and loans disguised as investments. Regulators are tightening their grip, yet so long as Beijing demands high-speed growth, it will have to tolerate some financial misbehavior.

Gavekal Dragonomics

James Stent

Sep 15th 2017

China’s banks get a bad rap. But actually they are pretty well run, especially if one understands their twin roles as commercial actors and tools of state development policy.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Agatha Kratz

Sep 15th 2017

CRRC is winning contract after contract in the US light rail market, slowly squeezing out traditional competitors. Its secret? The promise of direct investment and job creation.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Matthew Forney

Sep 15th 2017

When future historians seek to mark the moment when China celebrated its arrival as a world power, they may well point to its newly crowned highest-grossing movie, Wolf Warrior 2. The film is repudiates every sick-man-of-Asia slight China has suffered since the Opium War, and tells the world: those days are over; China is powerful; get used to it.

Gavekal Dragonomics

James Stent, Ian Johnson, Agatha Kratz, Jonathan Landreth

Sep 15th 2017

Is China’s financial system going to collapse? The speed of credit growth, the proliferation of financial institutions and financial products, and the chaotic and fragmentary data all make it reasonable to fret that China is on the verge of catastrophe. This issue of the CEQ is our attempt to bring clarity to this mystifying landscape.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Andrew Batson

Sep 14th 2017

China’s economic data for August confirmed that growth has stepped down a bit in the third quarter. The long-anticipated slowdown is for real, but is also still quite gradual. Andrew argues that policymakers will be comfortable with this situation, and that we should not expect a big change of direction after the Party Congress in October.

Gavekal Research

Long Chen

Sep 11th 2017

The last renminbi bears are throwing in the towel: with Chinese corporates unwinding the dollar holdings they have accumulated over the last two years, the renminbi is up strongly. Although the PBOC is for now happy to step back and let appreciation happen, there are still limits to how much it will want the trade-weighted exchange rate to rise.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Thomas Gatley

Sep 07th 2017

Second-quarter earnings for Chinese listed companies showed heavy industry still enjoying strong profit growth, but the more important trend is the consistent rise in profits in the “new economy.” As industrial reflation gradually cools, Thomas argues, these consumer, healthcare, and technology firms are set to outperform.

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Louis Gave

Sep 05th 2017

For the past several years, the brightest spot in global equity markets has been the US, and in particular tech and consumer stocks. This is changing, and we now have a "two-legged" equity bull market led both by US tech stocks and by a resurgent Asia. In our review of global investment conditions Louis explains why this is so, and argues none of the obvious land mines is likely to go off at any time soon.

Gavekal Research

Yanmei Xie

Sep 04th 2017

Yanmei Xie reports from China’s border with North Korea, where local residents and officials were left largely unshaken yesterday by the earth tremors from Kim Jong Un’s latest and biggest test of a nuclear bomb. Despite imposing some trade sanctions on its troublesome neighbor, Beijing has no desire to back the North Korean regime into a corner.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Rosealea Yao

Aug 31st 2017

Housing prices have had a wild ride in China this year, but with sales now cooling, prices are also losing steam. In this piece, Rosealea argues that the coming correction in housing prices will be a moderate one—probably about half of the 10% nationwide decline in 2014—as inventories are still low and policies are not particularly tight.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Yanmei Xie

Aug 25th 2017

China Unicom says its US$11.6bn share placement will bring it ten new strategic shareholders, including the nation's biggest internet firms. State media are touting the deal as a triumph of the "mixed ownership" reform for state enterprises, but it looks more like a bailout timed to score political points ahead of this fall's Party Congress.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Thomas Gatley

Aug 17th 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

Long Chen

Aug 15th 2017

China’s first monthly data for the second half of 2017 showed growth momentum softening. While reflation peaked in the first half of 2017, the story is still that the exit from reflation will be very slow and gradual. Economic policy will be largely on hold in this period: tightening has peaked, but the switch to easing is still a long way away.

Gavekal Research

Louis Gave

Aug 09th 2017

I don’t usually quote mass murderers, but when I do, I usually fall back on Lenin’s quip that “there are decades when nothing happens, and weeks when decades happen”. Lenin was referring to the Russian Revolution which took place a hundred years ago and to this day still casts a long shadow. To some extent, the Russian Revolution, itself a bastard child of the first world war, crystallized the end of an era for Europe. Thereafter the world’s...

Gavekal Research

Rosealea Yao

Aug 01st 2017

China’s property market is once again running hotter than expected, pushing prices of iron, steel and coal up by 15%-40% over recent weeks. But the gradual downward trend in property has not changed. And with high prices and government intervention both stimulating more commodity supply, the potential for further price gains is limited.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Andrew Batson

Jul 24th 2017

Investment drives China’s growth, but the state of the investment cycle is now being obscured rather than revealed by the most closely followed indicator of capital spending, fixed-asset investment. In this piece, Andrew updates his model of monthly real growth in gross fixed capital formation, and draws three conclusions from its signals.