Risk governance: China

The NED has been expanding its coverage of macro risk in response to recent geopolitical and market uncertainty. This month we examine the ramifications for markets of what is happening in China, which may well be a much greater threat to markets than many currently suppose.

There is relatively little coverage of the extraordinary events that have been taking place in China this year in the financial media. This may be because it is difficult to get hold of reliable data of what is going on there. But what is known is of concern – not just for China but for all those in the West whose investment portfolios include allocations to funds in the Asia-Pacific region.

The well-respected economic commentator, Ambrose Evans Pritchard, calls the collapse of China’s real estate market ‘the greatest property bubble in world history’. The problem is that when bubbles burst on this scale no one can say for sure what will happen next.

To read more on this story see the August issue of The NED.