“New housing starts fell by 15pc in April from a year earlier, with effects rippling through the steel and cement industries. Land sales fell by 20pc, eating into government income.
The Chinese central bank has ordered 15 commercial banks to boost loans to first-time buyers and ‘expedite the approval and disbursement of mortgage loans’, the latest sign that it is backing away from monetary tightening. The authorities are now in an analogous position to Western central banks following years of stimulus: reliant on an asset boom to keep growth going. Each attempt to rein in China’s $25 trillion credit bubble seems to trigger wider tremors, and soon has to be reversed.”