BOFIT Forecast for China 2018–2020 / 1

Abstract

The pace of China’s economic growth accelerated slightly last year, with official figures showing GDP growth of 6.9 % p.a. Even if the economic cycle appears on the upswing, growth is undergirded by the government’s heavy-handed stimulus policies. Since the Communist Party’s National Congress last autumn, the policy stance has tightened and the role of the party has been amplified. As a result, we have slightly boosted our GDP forecast for this year, putting it on par with China’s official GDP growth target of “about 6.5 %.” Going forward, high growth fuelled by debt will become unsustainable. China’s debt-to-GDP ratio is already high and will continue to rise in the forecast period. Thus, we expect growth to slow to a more sustainable level of around 5 % by 2020. Several sources of uncertainty from both domestic and international markets cloud China’s economic outlook. Downside risks have increased from our previous forecast.