Talking up the economy; Local government debt; Putin meets Wang Yi; Xi pushing US-China people to people relations; China and the Global South
Summary of today’s Essential Eight:
Talking up the economy - The NDRC, PBoC, Ministry of Commerce and the MIIT held a joint briefing to talk up the strength and resilience of the PRC economy and criticize those talking down the country’s economy. Bears be warned: “The "bearish China" argument is doomed to fail”.
State Council Executive Meeting - The payments issues between governments and businesses, and between businesses, must be getting extreme for the State Council to approve a "Special Action Plan for Clearing Arrears of Enterprises". The April Politburo meeting readout said that “Work must be done to ultimately address the issue of overdue payments to enterprises”. Six months later, it sounds like more work needs to be done.
Local government debt - Caixin reports on an academic seminar held earlier this month to discuss the problem of local government “hidden debt”. One scholar suggested that “interest-bearing LGFV debt had ballooned to 54.6 trillion yuan ($7.8 trillion) as of the …