China Under Scrutiny

Associated Press is reporting that the Bank of China has issued a warning on its website about the risk of a property bubble whilst xhinuanet informs us that a growing number of Chinese economists are worried about the dangers of over-capacity-driven deflation later this year or sometime in 2006 (Hat-tip to Skeptical Speculator). Obviously things to watch.

Again in the 'while I'm here' category, James - econbrowser - Hamilton has been posting on China's oil connundrums following up on a hat-tip from Oil Drum. David has also been posting on the oil topic on Afoe, and yours truly has been busy in the comments section there too.

Oh, oh. This has also just gone up on the FT website:

"China’s urban fixed asset investment was up 27.2 per cent in the seven months to July from a year earlier, despite the central government’s persistent efforts to reign in speculative and unnecessary expansion.

The rate was slightly lower than in the previous two months, when the year-on-year growth hovered above 28 per cent. But the figure was higher than the average prediction of 25.8 per cent by several economists surveyed by Reuters.

Beijing has said that moderating fixed asset investment, especially the speculative money being funneled into real estate markets and overambitious industrial projects, is crucial for sustaining economic growth in the longer term."

This is obviously what all the public heartsearching is all about.