By John Richardson WHAT if the number of new vehicle sales in China reached a long term peak of 28.9m in 2017? What if the declines in sales that we saw in 2018 continue or that at the very best sales remain flat? “Let’s put this in perspective, though. Just look at how the market […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China Lending Bubble Adds 4.7m Tonnes To Polyethylene Consumption
By John Richardson THE IMF produced a very interesting study earlier this month, in which it estimated that if it had not been for China’s giant economic stimulus programme the country’s real GDP growth would have averaged only 5.3% per annum during the five years to 2016. Instead, however, the IMF estimates that China’s economy […]
China: Consumption And Hot Air
Source: New York Times By John Richardson TALK of a billion plus Western-style consumers is nothing more than hot air, with the temperature maintained by the financial sector eager to sell you its products. The reality is very different, as this article from the New York Times describes. In the third of our series […]
China Urbanisation Complications
By John Richardson EVERY time you come back to the subject of China, it becomes ever-more complex and uncertain. An excellent example is an article published in the academic journal, Eurasian Geography and Economics, in February, by University of Washington professor Kam Wing Chan. It questions to what extent China’s economy will benefit from further […]