China posted the steepest deflation in 3 years. When Consumer Prices Fall, the capitalists hate it. It goes against their teachings, so it had to be a negative thing for China.
"Worsening deflation?" Hmm, I don't care what those economists think. I much prefer falling prices than rising prices. It means I can maintain a higher living standard with less money.
Bla bla bla. Yeah I know China's economy is not in its best shape ever. But have you looked at how things are going in the Western cities? Rising food prices, homes getting more expensive, rising medical costs, rising fuel prices, rising electricity bills, etc. Ask the average Londoner if he would like some of that dreadful deflation.
Who called for Beijing to step up stimulus? Is it those idiot economists who write magazines bashing China's economy? Beijing not giving any major bailouts to developers should have won them an award in how to manage an economy responsibly. The Chinese government have already said that "houses are for living, not for speculation. Anyone who engages in the speculation business and got burned, that's your problem.
I don't know how its like in China. But in Malaysia, anyone who have been in the construction business will know that many property developers are some of the worse scums in the business. They use the cheapest construction materials engineeringly possible. Many luxury condos look good on the outside, but are shoddy inside. Maintaining them is a nightmare. They (along with their major contractor buddies) bully the lower-tiered subcontractors to squeeze them as much as possible, pay them as little as possible, or sometimes not even paying them at all. They have their army of lawyers to play around and tire out those small contractors who wanna sue them for payment. Then they use the power speculation to sell their properties at sky-high prices. They recruit lawyers and bankers to make it easier for people to buy, but harder to sue them for any liabilities. Since many property developers in Malaysia are ethnic Chinese, I suspect that some of their culture is shared with their Chinese counterparts. So I don't have much sympathy for large property developers who irresponsibly play with property speculation. May they be punished for their greed and irresponsibility. The Chinese government did the right thing. They let the greedy capitalists suffer for their folly, and work to ensure that the property market serves the common people first.
Property prices going down is a positive thing for humanity. Housing is a basic human right. It cannot be denied to more and more people, because developers and speculators wanna inflate their prices to the moon. If the economy suffers because the big developers and speculators need to be humbled, then so be it. Its an overall positive thing in the long term.
I don't really agree with the Chinese government for stopping the publishing of youth unemployment data when the numbers got ugly. It makes it look like they were trying to hide uncomfortable data. Its easy ammunition for China bashers. Nevertheless I think the Chinese government have their own good reasons for doing so, but they have not given a clear explanation why.
My guess is that the economy of China is in a period of rapid adjustments due to the trade wars, Covid, and the tech war. So, many youths who graduate are finding a mismatch between their qualifications and the evolving demands of the Chinese job market. Maybe they want more programmers or physicists now, than accountants or business admins. The Chinese job market is also incredibly competitive, so that compounds the problem. Its a complicated issue, but I'm confident that the Chinese government is definitely on top of it right now.
The Western governments', are so much worse. They casually ignore their own economic issues, while constantly diverting attention to troubles in China. The economic problems in the West are magnitudes worse than whatever is happening in China. Just look at the idiocy of the fiscal policies in the US and Europe.
More Chinese can afford bigger meals and dining out. Less people died from Covid = Bad
More people in the West are finding it harder to afford their groceries. More people died from Covid = Good
Good FT. Continue to live in your capitalist fantasy.
