What to make of the slowdown in Chinese growth?
The slowdown in Chinese growth in the areas of construction, corporate investment, car sales and consumption of goods is very significant; while services and new technologies are resilient to the slowdown in growth. How should we interpret this slowdown in Chinese growth? Is it a cyclical slowdown, caused by the saturation of needs for durable goods and capital goods? Is it a slowdown that has structural causes: loss of competitiveness, ageing, excessive debt? Is it a slowdown caused by a loss of confidence, precautionary savings or capital outflows?