I took some time out from this podcast for a couple of reasons: for a week there, it seemed like the economic data wasn't really telling me anything new that I hadn't already talked about. But when China releases its 3Q GDP and a bunch of data for September, it would be surprising if there's nothing there to be seen.
And there is. To cut a long story short, no matter which was you cut and analyse the data, they all tell us the same story - that far from a 'dead-cat bounce' after Covid, China's recovery continues to make progress, with an underlying sequential acceleration which has dimmed only very slightly over the last three months. What's more, it looks like the recovery is genuinely being driven by a recovery in private, nominal, domestic demand, rather than merely a product of fiscal stimulus.
