Is Japan China's future?

China could be staring at the start of a deflationary phase similar to the one Japan experienced in the early 1990s

During a recent visit to China, I had the opportunity to get a sense of where the Chinese economy was heading after the zero-Covid restrictions were lifted in November 2022. These pervasive restrictions on mobility had adversely affected both domestic and external economic and commercial activities. Chinese annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth had fallen to 3 per cent in 2022, the slowest in several years. The property sector, which has accounted for over 30 per cent of Chinese growth for years, has been hit by the imposition of much stricter regulatory measures. The property bubble has “popped”, leading to