World Economy
0

Frustrated Business Leaders Quit Trump Panel

Elon Musk, Kevin Plank, Bob Iger, Richard Trumka, Kenneth Carleton Frazier
Elon Musk, Kevin Plank, Bob Iger, Richard Trumka, Kenneth Carleton Frazier

The honeymoon is definitely over. When US President Donald Trump was elected last November, big business rejoiced. In June, optimism among American CEOs was at a three-year high on hopes that Trump would succeed in implementing his pro-growth agenda, including tax cuts.

But Trump has now lost support from several executives who left an advisory panel on manufacturing over his response to a violent white supremacist rally in Virginia—a sign that big business is disenchanted with the billionaire leader, AFP reported.

The head of the powerful AFL-CIO union, Richard Trumka, added his name to the list of defectors that also includes the heads of Merck Pharmaceutical's  Kenneth Carleton Frazier; Under Armour's Kevin Plank; and Intel's Brian Krzanich, as well as the Alliance for American Manufacturing.         

Debt-fueled growth, the IMF warned, is a short-term solution that isn’t sustainable in the long run unless China tackles deeper structural issues.

 Alarm Bells Ringing

Experts have been sounding the alarm bell over this issue for years, urging China to rein in its old model of opening credit lines to fuel investment and spending and to find a better balance between supporting growth and controlling risks to the economy.

Chinese banks extended 825.5 billion yuan (about $123.44 billion) in new loans in July, down from 1.54 trillion yuan in June. Outstanding total social financing—a broad measure of credit and liquidity—came in at 1.22 trillion yuan last month versus 1.78 trillion yuan in June.

Part of the drop is seasonal, and it’s “masking an uptick in underlying credit growth,” wrote China economist Julian Evans-Pritchard at Capital Economics. A better way to look at credit creation is to gauge growth in outstanding bank loans and total social financing, both of which rose roughly 13% in July versus the same period last year.

 Risks Increase

“The near-term growth outlook has firmed but at the cost of higher medium-term risks. Policy support, recovering external demand, and reform progress have helped keep growth strong. Amid strong momentum and an expectation that the authorities will do what it takes to achieve their medium-term growth target, staff have increased their medium-term baseline growth projections,” the IMF said.

“However, risks around this baseline have also increased. The main cost of this stronger growth outlook is further large increases in public and private debt. Such large increases have internationally been associated with sharp growth slowdowns and often financial crises. Staff thus recommends replacing precise numerical growth targets with a commitment to reforms that deliver the fastest sustainable growth path.”

Aside from dealing with debt, the IMF also said China needs to address overcapacity and increase productivity in inefficient sectors, including those featuring China’s “zombie” state-owned enterprises.

It’s not all red flags: The IMF applauded China’s efforts to boost oversight and regulation of financial sector risks, to control a run-up in corporate debt, to better manage capital outflows and to stabilize fluctuations in the yuan.

 Banking Sector

The IMF also highlighted its worries about the rapid growth of China’s banking sector, now one of the largest in the world. “China now has one of the largest banking sectors in the world. At 310% GDP, China’s banking sector is above the advanced economy average and nearly three times the emerging market average.

“The sharp growth in recent years reflects both a rise in credit to the real economy and intra-financial sector claims. The increase in size, complexity and interconnectedness of these exposures have resulted in sharply rising risks.”

Beijing rejected the IMF’s criticisms, saying that the stronger growth outlook for 2017 was the result of a rebalancing of the economy and the government’s reform program rather than a reliance on debt.

Add new comment

Read our comment policy before posting your viewpoints

Financialtribune.com