Are The China Bulls Blind?

China is going to find it hard to repeat its past success, writes Edward Chancellor, a member of the asset allocation team at investment manager GMO, in a column in Monday’s FTfm.

China bulls might choose not to see what is clearly visible, argues Chancellor, but consider what has happened in the past few years: Since 2008, the stock of private credit (or ‘social finance’) has grown from 120 per cent to nearly 180 per cent of GDP. The recent pace of credit growth in China has exceeded that of the US in the years prior to the Lehman bust.