China’s golden depression plods on

Wednesday 16 July 2025

Let’s call it what it is: a recession. Even a depression. Much like Japan before it, it is of the golden variety, hidden by fiscal bridges to nowhere.

The Chinese economy grew a fanciful 5.2% in the June quarter.

But even the slow-moving and captured are asking pointed questions now. Bloomberg.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.