Lacking confidence is currently China’s biggest problem, according to Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters who noted that the longer term outlook was nonetheless positive as the country transitions to a new economic model.
China is currently undergoing a series of macro challenges. In addition to slowing growth, property troubles and geopolitical worries, it is also attempting to shift its economic model away from reliance on exports to domestic consumption. This has hit the sentiments of both investors and consumers.
«China’s biggest problem to me is a lack of confidence. External investors lack confidence in China and domestic savers lack confidence,» according to a «CNBC» report citing Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters.
Transitionary Challenges
Winters said that China is undergoing a shift from «old economy to new economy», noting that many related sectors such as electronic vehicles and sustainability are experiencing double-digit growth. But this is not without its challenges.
«They’re trying to manage this transition without disrupting the financial system, which in the West, we’ve never managed to do,» Winters said during a panel at the Dubai-based «World Governments Summit». «Every big industrial transition has had a major depression associated with it, or global financial crisis. They’re trying to avoid that which means it gets dragged out. I think they’ll get through the back end just fine.»
