What China needs to do is to shift the growth paradigm from demand-led to innovation-based. Only when the growth is based on innovation and creation, can supply automatically lead to demand and the Chinese-style overcapacity be overcome. However, this is no longer simply an economic issue and the change will take time. Even if China can embark on such adjustment, some long-term unfavorable factors such as aging will creep in and create large uncertainty for China’s economic future.
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In short, on the one hand, due to the overcapacity, the Chinese economy will continue to slowdown; on the other hand, growth in infrastructure investment and household consumption can partially fill in the demand deficiency left by the fall in growth of real estate investment. As a result, the Chinese economy should be able to obtain a growth rate of 7 percent in 2015.
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China’s financial situation in 2015 is more precarious. The specter of a financial crisis will continue to loom over the economy. However, it is difficult to judge whether, when, and how a financial crisis will be triggered in China. There are many potential triggers. Among them are a real estate bubble, shadow-bank activities, defaults of local government finance vehicles (LGFV), and capital flight. Whatever the trigger is, the fundamental cause of the financial crisis is, almost without exception, attributable to the unsustainability of debts. China’s total debt-to-GDP ratio has surpassed 250. Its corporate debt-to-GDP ratio is around 120 to150 percent, by far the highest in the world. Fortunately, on top of its very strong external position, China’s household debt-to-GDP ratio is low and its public debt on the whole is still in a good shape. In my view, the biggest challenge facing China in 2015 and beyond is the high corporate debt ratio compounded by the slowdown of the economy.
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All in all, 2015 will be a very challenging year for China. However, no one should forget China’s extraordinary ability to muddle through challenges and keep the economy going. To bet on the coming collapse of the Chinese economy is a very dangerous business. China observers should have learned this lesson.