Chinese land sales cancel stimulus

Tuesday 14 January 2025

If you want to know why China is no longer able to stimulate its economy the way it once did via property and infrastructure, look no further than land sales, which are running at post-GFC levels.

Worse, most sales are local governments selling to themselves via special purpose vehicles, the very definition of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The failure rate auctions to developers is terrible.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.