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by guerby 1736 days ago
Perspectives :

"The level of debt is jaw-dropping. The private non-financial sector owed the equivalent of 222% of GDP at the end of 2020. Most of that sits with companies. By comparison, private non-financial debt in America is 164% of GDP."

GDP per capita China :

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?location...

   2010  4550 USD (current)
   2020 10500 USD (current)
USA GDP per capita

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?location...

   2010 48466 USD (current)
   2020 63543 USD (current)
2 comments

> "The level of debt is jaw-dropping. The private non-financial sector owed the equivalent of 222% of GDP at the end of 2020. Most of that sits with companies. By comparison, private non-financial debt in America is 164% of GDP."

So they have about a third more debt than we do? "Jaw-dropping" seems like an overstatement.

The US Dollar is the primary currency in which trade is conducted in much of the world. The US banking and financial system has much of the most powerful entities in the world relying on it for their future financial gains.

China, by comparison is a relatively more fragile economy with much of the growth there coming from manufacturing and real estate , both of which are sectors that are starting to struggle because, either there's pressure to move manufacturing away from external forces or internal force in China are clamping down on real estate speculation to free up the capital allocation crisis there where people would rather put their money on brick and concrete rather than back scientific innovation or commercial enterprise.

In short, the US can print $4-$5 Trillion dollars and get away with it while China simply does not enjoy the same luxury.

China has currently 3.2 trillions USD worth of foreign currency reserves

https://tradingeconomics.com/china/foreign-exchange-reserves

(And 0.1 trillions in gold reserves FWIW.)

Another perspective - central bank lending rates:

   China: 3.875%
   ECB and FED: about 0.25%
I think you are implying that China has room to drop rates to stimulate the economy, but the rates you quote are nominal rather than real. I.e. they don’t subtract off inflation. China May be less capable of dropping rates without stoking greater inflation and massively upsetting social order.

I may be misinterpreting your point though.

Yes. And the rmb is rising relative the usd and euro. Point is they have plenty of space unlike the rest of us.