- Weak consumer spending is forcing China's leadership to go back to potential boondoggle infrastructure projects.
- No guarantee "Silk Road" projects will be profitable if completed.
- Ghost cities still remain mostly empty after over $2 trillion spent to build them.
Even though the official numbers from China's National Bureau of Statistics suggest consumption is moving steadily along, accounting for 51.2 percent of GDP, and following on the heels of the 12 percent boost in retail sales in 2014, there are questions these numbers may not reflect the reality on the ground.
It has been pointed out that "private surveys and results from consumer product companies" paint a different picture; one that draws the conclusion that consumer spending has been level or contracting.
Other data contributing to this as being the likely scenario are the PPI in April dropped for the 37th month in a row, and manufacturing in China, with a 49.2 reading in May (-4.6%, missing analysts expectations of -4.4%), confirms it is contracting faster than believed.
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