Deep Dive: China's property story not over despite revival efforts

$160bn pledge to property developers

Less than a week into the Chinese New Year and the sombre reality of China’s economic and market outlook has re-emerged, as the government attempts to battle a flip flopping Covid policy and worrying property market.

Property makes up around 25-30% of the GDP of the world's biggest economy, and the meltdown of one of its biggest developers is still being felt. Evergrande, which became one of the most indebted companies in the world during the crisis, declared default in late 2021 when its liabilities were close to 2% of China's GDP. Rumours it would be a Lehman Brothers part two moment did not become a reality, but one of the region's largest debt restructurings began. This is a policy pivot many investors have missed, according to Hani Redha of PineBridge Investments. The Chinese government la...