China’s real estate market is in decline. Debt deflation hangs in the air. The country’s workforce is shrinking and GDP growth is trending downwards.

No wonder the International Monetary Fund at its recent shindig in Marrakech warned of slowing economic growth in the People’s Republic, raising the prospect of “Japanisation” – the prolonged economic and financial malaise that afflicted its once high-flying neighbour after an asset bubble imploded three decades ago.

The trouble is that China’s economic imbalances are far worse than Japan’s in 1990. And that’s before considering the ruinous economic consequences of President Xi Jinping’s autocratic rule.

  • farcaster@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’ve read these warnings for several years now and I still haven’t made up my mind about whether this is actually a bad thing or not.

    If you check the numbers Japan has had economic stagnation, sure, but it’s also a stable, modern country with a high Human Development Index. I’m sure they look back longingly to the economic boom times of the 60s to the 80s but even now it seems like a fine place to live.

    Perhaps infinite economic growth is not actually necessary…

    • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Perhaps infinite economic growth is not actually necessary…

      To go along with this, neither is constantly climbing the career ladder and going for higher and higher positions. Something I’ve noticed is that older managers, especially at Fortune 500 companies, assume that’s what young people want. How to climb as fast as possible and assuring us that not everyone can be CEO.

      A lot of us really don’t care for that. Give me interesting opportunities, and raises commensurate with performance, experience, and inflation, and I’m perfectly content to just be an individual contributor. I have no desire to manage and be an executive.

      • Uranium3006@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        They think we’re mad we’re not already the CEO at 25. We’re actually mad we can’t affrod to rent an apartment with more bedrooms than roomates on a full time Job’s wage

        • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Hell they can’t fathom the idea that we have things we care about more than work. Like our mental health and peace of mind. Even when they do pay well they have the expectation that you’ll be a neat little corporate drone who asks for nothing they want and happily accepts anything they get.

  • Bernie Ecclestoned
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    1 year ago

    Deflation is the worst. Why buy something this month when you know it’s going to be cheaper next

    • Laser@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      This old trope

      In fact tech has always been a very deflationary sector (as in the longer you wait, the more you get for your money) yet it’s pretty profitable. Nobody would ever get a phone by that logic

      • Bernie Ecclestoned
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        1 year ago

        You only get more if you wait and buy that spec. Latest spec is always more and subject to inflationary shocks like covid supply chain disruption with semis.

        • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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          1 year ago

          Which is probably why they are terrified that the newer specs are not growing at the rates that make it required to get.

          If you can’t sell them on the newest chip at 4% faster then it starts to just roll back into deflationary and you need more people to buy it, like buly pushing an AI boom.

      • utopiah@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I don’t think that’s a realistic comparison. Deflation is just about money whereas technology has actual usage and each iteration is more powerful. Money is exactly the same now and ever, a mean to exchange value.

    • eskimofry@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Because I need it now? I don’t postpone stuff like food, water and medicine. And even other stuff that bring comfort like travel or hobbies.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    What’s known as the Asian Development Model involves high levels of investment financed from domestic savings, relatively depressed household consumption and strong export growth.

    Chinese private sector credit reached 227% of GDP at the start of this year, according to the Bank for International Settlements, some 13 percentage points higher than Japan’s 1993 peak level.

    Huang, who teaches at the MIT Sloan School of Management, fears that Xi is resurrecting the bureaucratic mode of government that stifled China’s economic development for centuries in the imperial era.

    The following year, authorities cracked down on private tutoring companies, and tech giant Tencent (0700.HK) agreed to pay $15 billion to aid the government’s wealth distribution efforts.

    But the engines of the country’s growth – the private sector, globalisation and the decision-making autonomy of regional governments – have been impaired by Xi’s actions, says Huang.

    This week, Beijing ordered state-owned banks to roll over local government debt with longer terms at lower interest rates.


    The original article contains 1,068 words, the summary contains 160 words. Saved 85%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • markr@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    China’s q3 gdp growth exceeded expectations. Reuters forgot their own headline from last week.