China’s consumers spend too little and its corporate sector spends too much. That’s the blunt message from the latest country report from the International Monetary Fund, which highlights a series of worrying, if not new, imbalances across the Chinese economy.
In six charts the IMF lays out its case for why Beijing needs to act now on its bloated corporate sector and begin the difficult task of reform.
It forecasts the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio will hit nearly 300 per cent by 2022, double that of a decade ago and worse than forecast just 12 months previously.
The IMF says growth has been stabilised and should average 6.4 per cent over the next five years, up from an earlier forecast of 6 per cent.