US Resilience Is a Problem Xi Wishes He Had
Beijing’s measures to buttress growth are underwhelming. Traders know it and so does the PBOC.
The economy is in danger of standing still.
Photographer: Raul Ariano/BloombergIt may only be a slight exaggeration to say that the biggest economic surprise of 2023 has been the resilience of the US. The widely anticipated American recession keeps being shelved. For all of China’s broadsides at Western capitalism, that’s a problem Xi Jinping would love to have.
China’s wilting recovery is the flipside of US commercial strength. Strong data keeps coming out of Washington and talk of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve has faded. In China, the discussion is dominated by dismay with the expansion, for which there were such high hopes when Covid Zero ended late last year. Calls for more stimulus are proliferating. Even Chinese consumers are showing signs of fatigue.