At the end of last month China’s 24-man politburo vowed to implement a stimulus plan that would help the world’s second-largest economy accelerate a “tortuous” recovery from its punishing Covid lockdowns.
Investors and China watchers, however, were underwhelmed by the ruling Communist Party’s ambiguous promises to prop up poor consumer spending and revive the country’s debt-laden property market.
The news today that Chinese exports slumped to the lowest level in July since before the pandemic have now hastened calls for a growth-rescuing package akin to the mass fiscal stimulus that Beijing unleashed in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
But rather than a sizeable “bazooka” that would lift consumer spirits, jump-start investment and tackle record youth unemployment, China’s authorities seem determined to carry out
© Times Media Limited 2023.