China’s Middle Class Is Losing Its Confidence—After decades in which the country’s economic miracle created an optimistic middle class, a slowdown has now left it shaken
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With China’s real-estate crisis set to get worse, developers and local governments have resorted to bizarre marketing strategies to attract home buyers wsj.com/world/china/de… via @WSJ w/@caocli
Liu Yuan, head of property research at Centaline, said that without government help, new-home prices will need to drop by another 50% from current levels before they reach a bottom, with the tipping point only coming when it is cheaper to buy than to rent.
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@caocli The danger of contagion risk has now passed, says Zhaopeng Xing, a strategist at ANZ. But Xiaoxi Zhang of Gavekal Dragonomics said there could still be a knock-on impact. “Domestic investor sentiment may turn even worse, especially for wealthy investors.”
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After being stuck in a housing downturn for two years, cities across China are giving developers the go-ahead to cut prices in a bid to revive sales. They are quickly running into resistance from homeowners who don’t want to see home values fall.
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Chinese shoppers are increasingly looking for bargains, lifting shares of companies that cater to budget-conscious shoppers even as the nation’s broader market stumbles.
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@RebeccaYFeng@caocli Country Garden's financial distress could create far bigger problems for the economy and policy makers than Evergrande’s debt default in 2021. Country Garden focused much of its enormous footprint on rural cities—an engine of China’s growth in good times.
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An Even Bigger Housing Crisis Threatens China’s Economy—Two years after Evergrande’s fall, distressed property giant Country Garden could create bigger problems
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“It’s not that they don’t want to buy houses. They have the purchasing demand, but they are just waiting,” Yan Songsheng, a sales manager at a state-owned developer, said of clients in Zhuhai, where sales are a quarter of average levels, despite discounts.
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@caocli@RebeccaYFeng “Certainly no one wants to see Country Garden fail,” said Yao Yu, the founder of YY Rating, a Chinese credit research firm. That would set off another panic about other developers that are still standing, which could drag the sector down further, he added.
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Country Garden, China’s largest surviving developer, is again struggling to convince investors that it can weather the storm wsj.com/articles/china… via @WSJ w/ @caocli
Chinese consumers are being frugal when buying everyday items from toothbrushes to shampoo, a worrisome trend for a country that is trying to shake off the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Since June, economists have been hoping for a big stimulus package that could boost demand for property. Instead, regulators have continued to focus on making it easier for property companies to get loans, or roll over old ones.
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How Beijing resolves Guizhou’s debt issues will have ramifications for investors and banks across China that own a lot of local government debt wsj.com/articles/one-o… via @WSJ w/@caocli
Skype users report connection issues when dialing Chinese phone numbers. “I have been using Skype to call my parents in China for a long time, and it is working fine,” one user wrote on May 7. “I cannot do it anymore starting yesterday.” wsj.com/articles/micro…
Banks across China are slashing deposit rates, after a year that saw their profits being squeezed by lower lending rates and record-high savings levels.
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