Finance & economics | Double dip

China’s population is shrinking and its economy is losing ground

The “peak China” narrative is proving difficult to shift

An elderly person walks in a hutong near an office complex in Beijing, China
Photograph: Reuters
|Hong Kong

“HOW SHOULD one look at the Chinese economy?”, asked Li Qiang, the country’s prime minister, at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 16th. “It is similar to looking at the Alps,” he suggested, an “undulating mountain range” that is best appreciated from afar. Official figures released the next day revealed two notable undulations in China’s economic landscape. The country’s population fell in 2023 for the second year running. And its GDP shrank in dollar terms.

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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Double dip”

From the January 20th 2024 edition

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