The outlook underlines what’s at stake for the world’s second-largest economy as it faces weakening demand at home and the downdraft of the trade war with the US. However, Trump has already delayed some of the tariff increases due to take effect from Sept. 1 amid economic turbulence, and face-to-face talks due to resume next month offer a chance for further reprieve.
(Aug 23): The new tariffs that President Donald Trump has threatened on US$300 billion ($416 billion) of Chinese goods would drag China’s annual economic growth below 6%, according to a Bloomberg survey, which would be the slowest expansion since 1990.
Once introduced, the extra 10% tariffs would cut up to 0.5 percentage point from gross domestic product expansion compared with the previous year, according to the survey of 14 economists by Bloomberg. With the nation’s growth already forecast to slow to 6% next year, that would drag it below the lower bound of the government’s current economic target.
