Gavekal Dragonomics

Andrew Batson

Sep 01st 2014

Premier Li Keqiang’s most successful economic reform so far is deregulation that has led to a surge in registrations of new private businesses. The next step will be to let these little companies become big ones.

Gavekal Research

Louis Gave

Aug 21st 2014

Is there a more consensus trade then being bullish on the US dollar? With a) the US economy outperforming those of Europe and Japan, with b) the Federal Reserve looking to withdraw some of the extra-ordinary stimulus that it has deployed in the past five years, just as the need for the European Central Bank, and possibly the Bank of Japan, to become a lot more aggressive becomes ever starker, with c) the Pentagon limiting its defense spending...

Gavekal Research

Charles Gave, François-Xavier Chauchat, Will Denyer, Joyce Poon, Udith Sikand, Long Chen

Aug 20th 2014

In the latest bi-weekly review of global economics and investment we focus on the velocity of money and the credit cycle in the major economic regions: Overview: Charles Gave notes with concern the downturn in the Gavekal Velocity Indicator. US: Will Denyer looks where the US is in the credit cycle and argues it looks more like 2004 than 2007. Europe: François Chauchat argues that contrary to popular belief Europe’s long credit crunch is...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Thomas Gatley, Long Chen

Aug 18th 2014

Among all the criticisms on the accuracy of Chinese statistics, the most famous and obvious one is that the sum of China’s provincial GDP is always substantially higher than the national figure released by the National Bureau of Statistics. This reflects the fact that GDP is the most important criterion used to evaluate local government officials, so they have a strong incentive to gussy up their numbers.

Gavekal Research

Long Chen

Aug 14th 2014

How do you ease without easing? That is the conundrum China premier Li Keqiang has set for himself. After a disappointing round of July data made clear that economic recovery was still fragile, Li’s cabinet, the State Council, issued a document asking the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and other ministries to “lower borrowing costs.” But it stopped short of signaling an interest-rate cut.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Andrew Batson

Aug 11th 2014

China’s government has been promising a “new-style” urbanization policy that will remedy some of the past decade’s many ills. But the ideas behind it are old: planners still seem convinced that the growth of big cities growth must be controlled, and are continuing wasteful efforts to shift resources to smaller and less productive cities.

Gavekal Research

Research Team

Aug 06th 2014

In our latest bi-weekly review of global economics and investment, we examine the bloated balance sheets of the world’s major central banks. We ask what exit strategies the central bankers have prepared to slim them down again, or whether expanded balance sheets are here to stay. If so, how will central bank bloat will affect investors in the coming years? Overview: Anatole Kaletsky argues persuasively that the US Federal Reserve and other...

Gavekal Research

Pierre Gave

Aug 05th 2014

This month saw a further improvement, albeit a small one, in our growth indicators. Risk appetite, on the other hand, now looks much more mixed compared with last month’s strong positive tendency. Also noteworthy is the recent spike in our diffusion index of US CPI components, which highlights the abatement of US deflationary pressures. On the asset side, government bonds continue to look expensive, especially in France. Meanwhile, equities are...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Andrew Batson

Aug 04th 2014

It’s increasingly clear these days that China has not one economy but two: the investment-driven complex of housing, infrastructure, materials, and the consumption-driven complex of services and consumer goods. Investment was the leader for many years, but since 2009 growth in capital spending has slowed very sharply. Heavy government stimulus and easy credit has smoothed rather than stopped this slump, which does not yet look to be over. The...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Andrew Batson

Jul 30th 2014

The big game hunter has now bagged his finest trophy. On Tuesday, the Communist Party officially announced a corruption investigation into Zhou Yongkang, a former member of the ruling Poliburo Standing Committee. Over recent months investigators have already detained many of Zhou’s relatives and associates. But no official of Zhou’s rank has been formally disciplined for corruption in the reform era, and it has been uncertain when or if he would...

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

Andrew Batson

Jul 24th 2014

It’s official: Li Keqiang is fed up. China’s mild-mannered premier has recently been described in official press releases as “speaking in an extremely severe tone” and “shaking his fist.” The target of this display of temper: government officials who are not moving fast enough to implement economic reforms. And Li’s temper tantrums are not just for show. Nine months after the publication of an ambitious modernization agenda, many of Beijing’s...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Long Chen

Jul 21st 2014

If there’s one thing almost everyone can agree about on China, it’s that its rise in debt has been very rapid, and is not sustainable. But where does China go from here? In this chartbook, we use historical examples to think about how a future deleveraging process might occur.

Gavekal Research

Thomas Gatley

Jul 16th 2014

Chinese equities look cheap, both in historical terms and compared with other markets. The price to earnings ratio for the Shanghai Composite has fallen from highs of more than 60 in 2007 to around 10, well below the MSCI World average of 15. But given the economic transition China is going through, neither its own history, nor other countries, are a good guide to whether current valuations are low. On examination, the earnings growth rates...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Andrew Batson, Ernan Cui

Jul 14th 2014

Is China’s reform drive for real? Since Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang took over the reins of government at the beginning of 2013, they have promised sweeping changes to economic policy, foreign affairs and public morality, among other areas. But they have also faced persistent skepticism that the substance of these changes lags behind their lofty rhetoric—and it is true that many of their biggest reforms remain mostly in the planning stages.

Fathom China

Fathom China Team

Jul 10th 2014

Many investors in Chinese firms check their skepticism at the border, and so have been easy prey for short sellers who benefit from exposing fraudulent companies. This report shows how investors can gain confidence that Chinese companies will be unlikely to come under successful short attacks. Solid due diligence can prevent a lot of pain.

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 Research

Louis Gave

Jul 02nd 2014

An investor who bought gold upon Arthur Burns’ arrival at the Federal Reserve and held it up until the day Ben Bernanke announced the second round of quantitative easing would have done about as well as someone who bought-and-held US equities (using the S&P 500 total return as the proxy). Both assets compounded at a little over 10% a year between February 1970 and August 2011. Amusingly, most gold-bugs reacted to QE2 (and then QE3) with glee...

Gavekal Research

Tom Miller

Jul 01st 2014

Across Asia, Xi Jinping’s much-vaunted “Chinese Dream” looks more and more like a Chinese nightmare. Last week, China unveiled an official map showing the South China Sea as an integral part of the country. The new map, which is designed to enhance awareness of China’s territorial claims stretching down the coasts of Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, deepens concern that the China Seas are beginning to resemble central Europe in the early...

Gavekal Research

Tom Miller

Jul 01st 2014

Across Asia, Xi Jinping’s much-vaunted “Chinese Dream” looks more and more like a Chinese nightmare. Last week, China unveiled an official map showing the South China Sea as an integral part of the country. The new map, which is designed to enhance awareness of China’s territorial claims stretching down the coasts of Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, deepens concern that the China Seas are beginning to resemble central Europe in the early...

Gavekal Research

Jun 25th 2014

In the latest bi-weekly review of global economics and investment:

Gavekal Research

Research Team, Tom Holland

Jun 23rd 2014

Over the weekend 700,000 inhabitants of Hong Kong, China’s dominant international financial center, voted in an unofficial referendum calling for full democracy and universal suffrage in the territory from 2017. The poll comes just over a week before a pro-democracy movement known as Occupy Central—or Occupy Central With Love And Peace, to give it its full name—has threatened to blockade key roads in the city, bringing the main financial...

Gavekal Research

Thomas Gatley, Long Chen

Jun 20th 2014

It’s now official. In a speech delivered in London, China’s Premier Li Keqiang said his government “can guarantee economic growth won’t slip below 7.5%” this year. It’s the first time he has stated explicitly that Beijing regards 7.5% as its floor for growth in 2014. Until last week he had maintained that a moderate slowdown would be tolerable and that the government was focused more on the quality than the quantity of China’s GDP.

Gavekal Research

Jim Lennon

Jun 19th 2014

The China-driven resource boom over the past decade has created great wealth in developing countries with big mining industries. It has also created a move toward “resource nationalism,” as countries seek to capture more of the value of their natural resources by clamping down on exports of raw ores and forcing investment in domestic smelting and processing plants. The poster child for this movement is Indonesia, which banned exports of many...