1/5

Thanks to FT for publishing my most recent piece. The point I try to make in this article is that for China to double GDP by 2035 requires that at least one of the following three be true:

-China must find an entirely new engine of economic...

ft.com/content/8cc6f9…
2/5

growth to absorb the huge amount of debt-financed spending that now goes into non-productive investments.

-China must redistribute at least 15-20 percentage points of income to the household sector to rebalance demand away from non-productive investment.
3/5

-There are no limits to a country's debt capacity, and its debt burden can rise indefinitely without ever putting downward pressure on growth.

China has been trying to accomplish the first of these conditions for well over a decade, but while there has been some success...
4/5

to a small extent, it hasn't succeeded to anywhere near the needed scale, and because the scale is so large, it is unlikely to do so. The second condition would entail a political transformation that would be disruptive in the short term, and so is probably also...
5/5

unlikely, although Beijing seems more determined than ever to follow this path. Finally, I think the third is simply wrong. But without at least one of these, doubling GDP by 2035 is very unlikely.

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More from @michaelxpettis

24 Nov
1/6

As I discussed in my FT article yesterday, Xi Jinping is right to say that it can only hope to double GDP by 2035 if it "distributes the fruits of development more fairly." Unless there is a massive redistribution of the income share of...

scmp.com/economy/china-…
2/6

GDP, doubling real GDP would require more than tripling the country's real debt, in which case the debt burden itself would almost certainly prevent the economy from doubling.

ft.com/content/8cc6f9…
3/6

The problem for China is that while by now everyone agrees about what needs to be done, they perhaps don't understand the extent of the redistribution needed. Between 80% and 100% of the growth in GDP over the next fifteen years must accrue...
Read 6 tweets
24 Nov
1/4

In my opinion the idea that India's future growth depends on whether or not it joins RCEP or other trade agreements is mostly ideological nonsense. Smaller countries can perhaps advance rapidly by becoming export superpowers, but India's main...

scmp.com/week-asia/poli…
2/4

problems – like those of China in the late 1970s – are weak business governance and the lack of domestic investment in infrastructure.

Like China in the 1980s and 1990s, these are the problems India must fix if it is to grow sustainably for many decades, and until it...
3/4

fixes them, trade agreements may just lock India into a minor role in global supply chains. It should only join trade agreements if these are reasonably balanced and bring India the resources it needs, rather than try to fit its economy into the needs of its trade partners.
Read 4 tweets
23 Nov
1/4

It is good news if Nigeria's rich really are directing the bulk of their wealth into investment in Nigeria. One of the best things under-invested developing countries can do is to harness their domestic savings for domestic investment.

ft.com/content/c5b986…
2/4

This for example is what Chile did in the 1980s with its pension fund system, and China in the 1990s with hard capital controls and financial repression. If countries with poor infrastructure and low investment can successfully harness domestic savings, while investment...
3/4

levels are low they actually benefit from the kinds of inequalities in income distribution that lead to a faster rise in savings than in consumption.

The problem is that the rich in many of these countries get rich by using their power to divert income to...
Read 4 tweets
23 Nov
1/6

I am not sure what it means for China’s financial regulators to crack down on people “running away” from their debts, but given the sheer amount of bad debt, what really matters systemically is how these bad debts are resolved.

scmp.com/economy/china-…
2/6

Defaulting is just a way of assigning losses – to creditors, in this case – that were already incurred by bad investment decisions. If the creditors are banks, this doesn't really resolve the issue because Beijing must then decide how to allocate losses within...
3/6

the banking system. If the borrower is bailed out by local governments, as is usually the case, local governments effectively absorb the losses, which must then be paid for for either by raising taxes and fees on households and businesses or by selling off assets.
Read 6 tweets
22 Nov
1/10

The fierce debate continues in Beijing between those who are more worried by rising debt and those more worried by slowing growth. Among the former, two weeks ago Lou Jiwei said it was time to study an orderly exit of loose monetary policies...

scmp.com/economy/china-…
2/10

while PBoC Vice Governor Liu Guoqiang warned of tighter monetary policy “sooner or later”. Now, among the latter, we have Liu Shangxi saying “As to whether [the PBOC] should exit its monetary stimulus, I think it’s not the right time, not even for a marginal tightening.”
3/10

I don’t know how this eventually plays out, but I suspect that given the surge in debt this year and the recent scare in the bond markets, the former will have the upper hand. That is why I disagree with the expectations of most analysts, who seem to be expecting...
Read 10 tweets
20 Nov
1/6

Very interesting article. After many years in which it promised "steadily" to promote the internationalization of the RMB, China's Central Committee now says, in an outline for the next five-year plan, that it will do so "steadily and prudently".

scmp.com/economy/china-…
2/6

This may seem like a minor adjustment, and some in China are insisting that it is, and that "China still has to go ahead. If you think China will be conservative or even stop the process of yuan internationalisation, you are wrong.”
3/6

But in fact I think what it really means is that there is much greater recognition within Beijing that internationalizing the RMB isn't just the equivalent of waving a bigger flag more vigorously. It entails real costs, not least of which is losing control over...
Read 6 tweets

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