Hong Kong’s efforts to shore up property prices and end a three-year market slump are bad news for residents seeking to own their first homes in the city, after a …
This partly explains why the government has stepped up support for the crisis-ridden housing market. Beijing has intensified pressure on banks to assist vulnerable developers, cut mortgage rates to stimulate …
Even allowing for the long-standing tendency towards excess on the part of stock investors – which has all too often resulted in boom-and-bust cycles – the apparent inability of markets …
Does anyone really believe that China will hit its growth target for this year of “around 5 per cent”? Even Premier Li Qiang, who announced the ambitious goal on Tuesday …
Myth 1: Interest rates will fall. This is a myth because the US Federal Reserve has no reason to cut rates. The current US economy displays interest rates, inflation, growth …
Those expectations were dashed as early as May when it became clear the recovery had faltered, mainly because of the severity of the crisis in the all-important property sector. Excessive …
“Staggering” is the kind of term those attempting to describe the debt problems in China would use. It is strong language coming from a sober institution such as the IIF, …
The relationship between the real economy and financial markets is never straightforward, mainly because there are many factors other than growth that influence asset prices. An oft-cited adage on Wall …
Be grateful for small mercies. Last week, Citigroup’s Economic Surprise Index – a gauge that measures how often economic data comes in above or below expectations – swung back into …