The News
The World Bank upgraded its forecasts for China’s economic growth, a rare boost for a country that has been fighting debt, deflation, and declining confidence.
The Washington-based lender attributed its new projections to recent efforts by Beijing to ease monetary and fiscal policy, but its estimates were nevertheless below China’s own official targets of around 5% GDP growth, and far lower than the country’s historic breakneck economic expansion.
China has struggled with a flailing property market, persistent unemployment, and the specter of deflation, leading other analysts to be even less sanguine than the World Bank: The Economist labeled Beijing’s efforts at stimulus as “tardy, cautious, and ineffectual,” and warned that “China’s economy is in for another rough year.”
