It’s a real confusion of voices emanating from China. From Bloomie:
China’s economic growth in 4Q may be less than 7% because “big” structural changes that were expected to help growth weren’t realized, external demand remains weak and domestic overproduction can’t be absorbed by internal demand, Wang Jian, a researcher at the National Development and Reform Commission’s China Society of Macroeconomics writes.
He went on to say 6% growth is possible and defending that level would mean stimulus. Meanwhile, in another story:
China banned government and Communist Party agencies from constructing new buildings for five years and told them to suspend projects that have already won approval as the country seeks to cut wasteful spending.
The ban includes construction for purposes of training, meetings and accommodation, the government said in a statement on its website yesterday, calling for resources to be spent instead on developing the economy and improving public welfare.
All localities should report the implementation of the new rules by Sept. 30, according to the statement.
President Xi Jinping, appointed as the ruling Communist Party’s general secretary in November, last month pledged a “thorough cleanup” of the party amid a yearlong campaign aimed at ridding its ranks of bureaucracy and extravagance. China’s economy grew 7.5 percent in the second quarter and is at risk of the weakest expansion in 23 years.
“The main purpose of the call for a ban on new government buildings is largely symbolic in that these are a highly visible sign of government officials misusing public monies,” Andrew Wedeman, a political science professor at Georgia State University and author of “Double Paradox: Rapid Growth and Rising Corruption in China,” wrote in an e-mail. “A real assault on corruption, however, requires a much less visible, long-term effort to attack the causes of corruption, not just those involved and the visible symbols of corruption.”
