The Beigie Awards: China Edition

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Beigies are back, with a twist!

In China, data on the economy is sometimes difficult to come by, so we thought we'd take a leaf out of the US Federal Reserve's Beige Book instead. Today, we bring you some colorful anecdotes about China's economy, on inbound tourism and revenge spending, neither of which is fueling an economic comeback.

Related Episodes:

Boats, bikes and the Beigies (Apple Podcasts / Spotify)
Young, 'spoiled and miserable' in China
Two Indicators shaking China's economy

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.8	NPR.
0:11.8	2023 was meant to be the year for China's economy.
0:15.7	After years of heavy COVID restrictions, the Chinese government was loosening up.
0:21.0	There was a theory going around that over a billion Chinese people would all of a sudden
0:25.2	get out of quarantine and start to spend, like drunken sailors.
0:29.2	Or like Americans, that's even worse, right?
0:32.4	Buying dishwashers, home renovations, fancy meals out, Amazon, you name it, Americans will buy it.
0:38.4	And this theory is called Revenge Spending.
0:41.4	Buying things just because you couldn't for a long time.
0:44.5	But it's been hard to see evidence of revenge spending in the official statistics in China.
0:49.8	China's economy seems to be pretty weak these days, if anything.
0:52.8	Higher unemployment, house sales plummeting.
0:55.2	But you know what, the economy is more than just a collection of official statistics.
0:59.8	It's also real people with real stories.
1:02.8	Well, there is an economic report we release here in the United States that is all about anecdotes.
1:10.4	You're talking about the beige book.
1:12.8	Yeah, I never miss a chance to bring up the beige book.
1:16.1	And no one says that we can't do a little of that beige magic looking at the Chinese economy too.
1:21.8	Wait, Robert, are we doing this?
1:25.2	It's the Beijing Awards China edition.
1:31.8	It's a one time special from us here at the indicator from Planet Money.
1:35.4	An award show for the best stories that can help us understand why China
	...

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.