The world is watching as China’s economy heads for historic fall
“In the case of longer-lasting zero COVID policy in China or a much deeper property downturn, GDP growth in 2022 could drop to 4 per cent,” Tao Wang, chief China economist at UBS, said in a note.
China’s property sector is the biggest question mark over the economy because of its huge scale– more than 900 million square metres of apartments are constructed each year, official data show.
That investment, plus the output of related sectors like steel and cement production, accounts for anything between 20 per cent and 25 per cent of China’s GDP, economists estimate. Any slowdown – or an outright decline – in real estate development would leave a gap in the economy that expansion in no other sector could easily fill.
China’s property sector is the biggest question mark over the economy.Credit:Getty Images
“China’s property slowdown is a major headwind to the global economy because it is likely to be the biggest headwind…
