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Sujets d'actualite | Article - 3 Min

Unveiling the outlook behind China’s distorted Q1 GDP report

China’s economy grew robustly in the first quarter of 2021, at least on the face of it. However, underlying growth momentum has slowed. This should reduce any risk of monetary tightening that investors are worried about. The real risk is tighter regulation: Fintech lending, shadow banking and non-systemic zombie companies face a crackdown.

The data distortion

China’s GDP expanded by a solid 18.3% in the first quarter, but this mainly reflects a (distorting) base effect. As a result, it is not a useful guide to the direction of policy and financial markets.

Compared to the first quarter of 2019, overall growth was a more modest 10.3%. The main indicators – retail sales, fixed-asset investment, freight traffic and real estate investment – were hardly robust (see Exhibit 1).

Exhibit 1_The COVID-related base-effect has distorted China's growth data (Q1 2021)

The latest data shows two things:

1)           China has yet to correct its lopsided recovery: The consumption/demand side of the economy is still lagging the production side in terms of growth.

2)           In view of the robust headline growth in the first quarter, growth target for this year of 6.0%+ implies that Beijing has more leeway to pursue its financial de-risking policy.

The first quarter is likely the peak of China’s economic recovery from the pandemic-induced slowdown ahead of a slower growth as exports contribute less to GDP in the coming months and growth of fixed-asset investment falls. Consumption will likely recover sluggishly as uncertainty over the outlook for deleveraging policy and reform clouds confidence, limiting the provision of credit and causing job and income insecurity. By the fourth quarter, growth could slide towards 6.0%.

Financial stress rising

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) is handling a complicated dual mandate: De-risking the financial system and preventing any financial accidents while sustaining GDP growth. This backdrop is likely to lead to higher Chinese bond yields and higher volatility for Chinese stocks in the short term.

Slowing growth and rising financial stress may eventually prompt the PBoC to ease policy, albeit still selectively, but that will likely be a story in the second half of this year.

The true tightening risk this year is regulatory. Shadow banking, including fintech lending, will bear the brunt of the pressure as well as weak borrowers that are not systemic. Meanwhile, the PBoC’s cautious policy stance, which is meant to facilitate Beijing’s deleveraging efforts, could create a negative credit impulse[1] in the coming months. This will aggravate stress from rising defaults.

The rise in the share of state-owned-enterprises (SOE) defaults (see Exhibit 2) shows Beijing’s retreat from its implicit policy guarantee. While this is structurally positive for Chinese assets and credit pricing, the move will hurt market confidence before investors come to terms with the new normal.

Exhibit 2_The share of defaults by state-owned enterprises is rising (Q1 2021)

The PBoC’s stance: Striking a fine balance

The central bank uses two broad indicators for conducting policy:

1) Keeping M2 money supply growth at the same rate as nominal GDP growth

2) Keeping the amount of new bank lending at last year’s level.

Data shows that there is no reason for it to ease policy since these indicators are already above their targets. M2 growth was at 10.1% compared to 6.8% of nominal GDP growth at the end of 2020. New bank loans have been growing at annual 16%. If they do not slow down, new bank loans will overshoot last year’s level, violating the PBoC’s guideline.

Hence, PBoC policy has a tight monetary bias in the context of Beijing’s financial de-risking efforts. Policy is broadly neutral to ensure there is enough liquidity to preserve economic growth and keep the credit system functioning. It is a fine policy balance that the PBoC is trying to strike.

Looking to the second half

A combination of slowing GDP growth momentum (but not to below 6.0%), rising financial stress (as reflected by rising defaults) and a falling credit impulse implies more upside for yields and more volatile stocks in the short term.

However, these factors could prompt the PBoC to do more selective easing eventually. That should be positive for the markets, but not before the second half of this year.

More articles on China

[1] This is reflected in the ratio of new credit flows to nominal GDP.

Please note that articles may contain technical language. For this reason, they may not be suitable for readers without professional investment experience. Any views expressed here are those of the author as of the date of publication, are based on available information, and are subject to change without notice. Individual portfolio management teams may hold different views and may take different investment decisions for different clients. This document does not constitute investment advice. The value of investments and the income they generate may go down as well as up and it is possible that investors will not recover their initial outlay. Past performance is no guarantee for future returns. Investing in emerging markets, or specialised or restricted sectors is likely to be subject to a higher-than-average volatility due to a high degree of concentration, greater uncertainty because less information is available, there is less liquidity or due to greater sensitivity to changes in market conditions (social, political and economic conditions). Some emerging markets offer less security than the majority of international developed markets. For this reason, services for portfolio transactions, liquidation and conservation on behalf of funds invested in emerging markets may carry greater risk.

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