Why is China’s economy stumbling?

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But while the actions of Xi Jinping, China’s president, have indeed been erratic, I’m in the camp of economists such as Michael Pettis of the Carnegie Endowment who see the country’s problems as more systemic. The basic point is that China, in various ways, suppresses private consumption, leaving the country with huge savings that need to be invested somehow. This wasn’t too hard 15 or 20 years ago, when Chinese GDP could grow as much as 10 per cent a year largely by catching up with Western technology: a rapidly growing economy can make good use of huge amounts of...