China Economics Weekly Vaccine rollout will accelerate China appears once again to have successfully crushed the recent COVID-19 flare-up. Its vaccination campaign is looking less impressive and the original target for inoculations by Lunar New Year... 11th February 2021 · 4 mins read
China Economics Weekly Ant capitulates, officials chip away at hukou barriers The government is taking some further steps to boost labour market mobility by making it easier for migrants to settle and access healthcare in many of China’s cities. That will ease one constraint on... 5th February 2021 · 7 mins read
China Economics Weekly Fiscal taps turned off, Spring Festival travel subdued A rush to meet annual spending targets pushed China’s quarterly budget deficit to the second largest on record at the end of 2020. But the government has now turned off the taps. Local government bond... 29th January 2021 · 5 mins read
China Economics Weekly PBOC takes aim at digital payments duopoly The People’s Bank this week issued draft guidelines that would force China’s mobile payments giants to cede ground to their rivals or face being broken up. The argument that this is needed to foster... 22nd January 2021 · 5 mins read
China Economics Weekly Less travel, more work this Lunar New Year With new virus cases at their highest in 10 months, local governments and firms are discouraging workers from travelling during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday. While this will deal a blow to... 15th January 2021 · 7 mins read
China Economics Weekly Virus disruptions linger but vaccines deliver This week’s lockdown of Shijiazhuang, a city of 11 million, is a reminder that sporadic flare-ups of COVID-19 are still imposing an economic cost on China. Domestic passenger travel in particular... 8th January 2021 · 7 mins read
China Economics Weekly Tech crackdown, demand-side reform The recent Politburo meeting underscored that reining in the tech sector's has become a key priority for China’s leadership. The economic consequences of this crackdown are far from clear-cut. But... 18th December 2020 · 7 mins read
China Economics Weekly Year-end leadership forum to flag hawkish policy shift China’s leadership will gather in the coming days for the annual Central Economic Work Conference. With the economy now back on track, we think discussions will focus on the recent surge in debt... 11th December 2020 · 5 mins read
China Economics Weekly Financial decoupling meets financial coupling Chinese firms are coming under increasing pressure to delist from US equity markets. But the broader trend is towards tighter financial ties between China and the rest of the world. The financial... 4th December 2020 · 8 mins read
China Economics Weekly Vaccines will jab holes in exporters’ sails The widespread rollout of vaccines in major developed economies is likely to take the wind out of the COVID-boom in online spending that has powered the extraordinary recent strength of China’s... 27th November 2020 · 5 mins read
China Economics Weekly Credit risk awakens from COVID-19 hibernation With output now back to its pre-virus path and the labour market returning to health, policymakers appear to have decided that the time has come to instil a bit more discipline into credit markets. By... 20th November 2020 · 3 mins read
China Economics Weekly Vaccine impact, tech crackdown, renminbi The coming week’s retail sales data are likely to signal that consumer spending, the part of China’s post-lockdown recovery that has lagged the most, is back to health. China is a rare example of a... 13th November 2020 · 6 mins read
China Economics Weekly Tech giants in the Party’s crosshairs The abrupt suspension of Ant’s IPO, which was supposed to enter the record books this week as the world’s largest, is a stark reminder of the political risks and lack of transparency that are still... 6th November 2020 · 8 mins read
China Economics Weekly Plenum readout heavy on ambition, light on detail The Fifth Plenum, held in Beijing to discuss the government’s 14 th Five-Year Plan and long-run goals, concluded yesterday. In its post-meeting communique, the leadership laid out ambitious plans to... 30th October 2020 · 6 mins read
China Economics Weekly The “lose-lose” behind China’s self-sufficiency push A push to raise China’s self-sufficiency in key technology sectors looks likely to be a theme of the new Five-Year Plan that the leadership will discuss at next week’s Plenum. Many commentators appear... 23rd October 2020 · 5 mins read
China Economics Weekly Export outlook still strong despite virus flare-ups China’s goods exports probably can’t keep growing at their incredibly-rapid recent rates for long, not least because infection flare-ups in Europe and the US will take some steam out of the recoveries... 16th October 2020 · 6 mins read
