China in debt
A look at China’s ghost towns and the bad debt they represent. Plus, why the work gender gap is still prevalent.
The Chinese economic slowdown comes as no surprise to global analysts. As outlooks are adjusted accordingly, it isn’t the country’s profit margins that are causing concern, but the decades of spending on unfinished building projects that have created a deluge of bad debt for China.
Taxpayers point the finger of blame at the government and the lack of social change and development evaluations before money is squandered on the hundreds of unfinished projects, or “rotten buildings” as they have come to be known.
Even with the general jitters, this kind of transmission can have an impact on all economies that export to China.
According to the Chinese government, China currently has two billion square metres of empty residential space – enough to house 100 million people.
Economists echo the peoples’ sentiments with the reason for a potential crash placed squarely on the government’s shoulders with its insatiable desire for hyper growth. As a result, a debt crisis is a serious possibility.
But many continue to deny China’s seemingly inevitable forecast, including the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang.
“We are fully confident of China’s long-term economic growth. As long as we continue to reform and open up, China’s economy will not suffer a hard landing,” said Keqiang.
Critics, however, remain doubtful – the endless sea of deserted developments standing as evidence of their fears for the future.
“The economy is not getting better; I see that now. The factories are no longer thriving, and salaries have not gone up with our nation’s development. It has all changed. How did it come to this? It’s terrible,” laments former factory worker Meng Shi Jun.
With China adamant that there are no real risks in its future, what can the global economy expect? Will there be ongoing, or even increasing, debt and banking problems?
“China is, by some measures, the biggest economy in the world, and it is very well integrated into the global supply chain – anything that happens in China will have repercussions globally,” says Sebastien Marlier of the Economist Intelligence Unit.
The gender pay gap ‘non-myth’
Gender equality is a UN sustainable development goal that continues to appear out of reach as the gender pay gap continues to exist in workplaces around the world.
The World Economic Forum has forecast that it will be another 118 years before pay parity is achieved.
Higher positions of management are also part of this inequality scale.
The London Stock Exchange currently only affords seven out of every 100 women a managerial position.
Also in the UK, the pay gap stands at 18 percent between men and women, deepening even further after childbirth.
We speak to Robert Joyce from the Institute for Fiscal Studies about what is causing the gap and what can be done to speed up measures of equality. We also speak with Catherine Hill, director of research at the American Association of University Women about the deniers of gender pay inequality.