China's weakening economy in two Indicators

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2023

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In China, data on the economy is sometimes difficult to come by. The Chinese government has put a pause on releasing some of its official economic data. But many of the stories emerging from the country paint a clear picture: the second largest economy in the world is struggling.

Today, our friends at The Indicator share some of their recent reporting on China. First up, it's a special edition of the Beigie Awards focused entirely on China. What can the approach of the Federal Reserve's Beige Book - i.e. looking at anecdotes that tell us something about where the economy is headed - show us about China's economy?

Then, we take a deep dive into one of the most alarming indicators in China: the skyrocketing urban youth unemployment rate.

This episode was hosted by Darian Woods, Wailin Wong, and Robert Smith. The original Indicator episodes were produced by Corey Bridges with engineering by Robert Rodriguez. They were fact-checked by Cooper Katz McKim and Sierra Juarez. They were edited by Paddy Hirsch and Kate Concannon.

Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	There's a lot in the news these days, and sometimes the headlines just aren't enough.
0:06.0	Every Sunday on Up First, we bring you an in-depth exploration behind a major story.
0:11.9	We dive deeper into the details and why you should care.
0:16.2	Listen now to the Sunday story from NPR's Up First Podcast.
0:22.2	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:26.4	Twenty-two-three was meant to be the year for China's economy.
0:30.4	After years of heavy COVID restrictions, the Chinese government was loosening up.
0:35.4	There was this theory that over a billion Chinese people would all of a sudden get out of quarantine and start to spend, like drunken sailors.
0:44.4	Or like Americans, that's even worse, right?
0:47.4	Buying dishwasher's home renovations, fancy meals out, Amazon, you name it, Americans will buy it.
0:53.4	And this theory is called Revenge Spending. Buying things just because you couldn't for a long time.
0:59.4	But it's been hard to see evidence of revenge spending in the official statistics in China.
1:04.4	China's economy seems to be pretty weak these days, if anything.
1:07.4	Higher unemployment, how sales plummeting.
1:10.4	But you know what, the economy is more than just a collection of official statistics.
1:14.4	It's also real people with real stories.
1:18.4	Well, there is an economic report we release here in the United States that is all about anecdotes.
1:25.4	You're talking about the beige book.
1:27.4	Yeah, I never miss a chance to bring up the beige book.
1:30.4	And no one says that we can't do a little of that beige magic, looking at the Chinese economy too.
1:36.4	Wait, Robert, are we doing this?
1:39.4	It's the Beijing Awards China edition.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.