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Has China’s Economy Really Turned the Corner?   Looking Behind the Latest Economic Numbers Data from the first few months of this year suggested that the Chinese economy might at long last be starting to pull out of its prolonged post-Covid funk.   These green shoots include the producer price index (PPI) moving back into positive territory, a strong rebound in corporate profits, and possible bottoming out of the years-long property slump.   However, closer scrutiny of those numbers, along with more recent ones, points to continued strong headwinds facing the world’s second largest economy. The PPI shot up  2.8% in April and 3.9% in May over the same time last year, after ticking up 0.5% in March over the same time last year.   These increases reversed a 41-month streak of negative PPI readings.   The consumer price index (CPI) also rose, albeit much more modestly, going up by 1.2% in April and May over the same times last year.     The recent jum...
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Fake Banking Lending Casts a Spotlight on Ongoing Problems in China’s Economy As anyone who, as I did, spent years living in China knows, the country’s treasure trove of splendid monuments, like the Great Wall and Forbidden City, are juxtaposed against sea of things the Chinese call 假的 (Jiǎde), or “phony/fake.”   The latter range from “Rolex” watches peddled by street hawkers that cease functioning within days to cheesy knockoffs of foreign UNESCO World Heritage Sites.   A recent addition to this fakery is the growth of “scam” loans issued by Chinese banks.   This development reflects continued weakness in the post-Covid Chinese economy.   Back in mid-November, Bloomberg  reported that the owner of an auto parts manufacturer in Zhejiang, one of China’s most prosperous and economically advanced provinces, received a highly unusual proposition from one of the big Chinese banks.  A loan officer at the bank requested that this businessman borrow 5 million RMB ...
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