China’s 2019 gross domestic product forecast cut to 6.2 per cent by World Bank under ‘Darkening Skies’
- Multilateral development lending institution is the latest to predict a deepening of the economic slowdown in the mainland
- American President Donald Trump has claimed that the weakening economy gives the US an advantage in trade talks with Xi Jinping’s administration
A report titled “Darkening Skies” has forecast China’s growth for 2019 will drop by a further 0.1 of a percentage point over concerns of “weaker exports”, with many other institutions joining the World Bank in predicting a deepening slowdown in the world’s second biggest economy.
The World Bank’s projection for Chinese growth this year is in line with estimates by both Chinese and foreign forecasters, which fall in a range of 6.0 per cent to 6.5 per cent, down from an estimated 6.6 per cent in 2018.
“[China’s] growth is projected to decelerate to 6.2 per cent in 2019, slightly below previous projections as a result of weaker exports,” the World Bank said in the January edition of “Global Economic Prospect”.
The latest blow comes at a time when doubts are rising over the trustworthiness of the Chinese official gross domestic product growth rate, which has been extremely steady within a narrow range of 6.5 per cent to 7.0 per cent over the last 15 quarters.
Xiang Songzuo, a professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, said in a speech last month that he had read two “internal reports” about the current state of the Chinese economy – one said China’s real growth was only 1.67 per cent and the other showed China was actually in economic recession.
The video of the speech went viral in China before it was censored, and subsequent attempts to contact professor Xiang have been unsuccessful.