It’s been a slow week in China, very slow, and not just because everyone is too distracted by the World Cup.
The big China Beige Book popped its head off the shelf as it does once every three months to announce that China’s economic development slowed further in this quarter as capital spending slowed and fewer companies went begging for cash. Talks between Australia and China to mash out a free trade agreement were also said to have decelerated. Beijing is reportedly cooling its interest in the blond Ozzie bombshell, even though she publicly put her assets on view to Chinese SOEs.
Pen pushers at the National Audit Office also uncovered more cases of things slowing down. Their latest report noted that local authorities are slowing the pace at which they add new debt, assuaging some worries about the risks posed to central government finances by the accumulation of local government debt. Hooray!
Some were even calling for China to hold its horses. State media were ordered to take it easy with their spending on cars and five-star hotels after being caught flashing the cash by elite accounting sleuths dispatched from Zhongnanhai. Industrial SOEs were also told to lean back and chillax before embarking on big operations that cost billions, showing the true value of taking things a bit more slowly in the country’s often too-brash economic growth.
Next week expect things to be slightly less slow.
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