All of this happened in China this week. A thread. 1/10
Not so bad. December data for retail sales and industrial output was far better than forecast, showing the resiliency of China's economy even as Covid spread across the country. Liu He tells Davos growth will rebound to its normal trend this year. 2/10
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
Demographics. China’s population shrank in 2022 for the first time since the 1960s, mostly due to the fewest births in at least 72 years. India may have already surpassed its neighbor as the world’s most populous nation. 3/10
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
Chips war. Dutch and Japanese export controls may come as soon as this month. But restrictions on the sale of advanced semiconductor equipment to China are unlikely to be as tight as those planned by the Biden administration. 4/10
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
2022's exodus. New foreign direct investment into China slumped 29% in the final two months of last year - the most on record. Overseas funds sold $91 billion worth of Chinese yuan bonds in 2022, the biggest outflows since data began in 2014. 5/10
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
Evergrande’s future. The developer is in restructuring talks with creditors, proposing two options for extending payment deadlines on some USD debt. Separately, auditor PwC quits due to disagreements over Evergrande's still unpublished 2021 results. 6/10
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
Alibaba activism. WallStreetBets idol Ryan Cohen takes a stake in Alibaba and is pushing for more buybacks. Cohen’s sway over the board will however be limited by the Chinese government's golden shares. Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma arrives in Hong Kong. 7/10
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
Ride hailing. Didi’s app reappears in stores, allowing it to bring in new users for the first time since a ban imposed July 2021. It will soon have a new competitor - a state-launched app for public employees aptly named “Strong Nation Transport.” 8/10
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
Housing hiccups. China’s new home prices fell for a 16th month, extending a record downturn. Policy makers have done a lot more since December to revive the market, including a plan to channel cheap loans to developers via bad-debt firms like Huarong. 9/10
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
Covid's new stage. In his pre-LNY holiday address, Xi Jinping calls for greater efforts to fight the pandemic especially in rural areas. China reported nearly 60,000 official Covid-related deaths for the first five weeks of its current outbreak. 10/10
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
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