It suggests China’s economy has been in many ways held up artificially by government waste. Scaling back the pace of waste leaves China’s internal economy to suffer its much-reduced industrial baseline.
Thus, the question of how much reduced is paramount. If officials are no longer willing to support rebalancing in the same way, where is China left to go from here? Six percent IP isn’t a very good place to start, even if that is the actual number. Fixed Asset Investment (FAI) on an accumulated basis was just 5.3% in August, the lowest on record.
