Citi's Chief Economist Says China Is 'Financially Out of Control'

Probably true, but kinda ironic that someone from $hitibank is applying the description 'financially out of control'. Pot, kettle.


(Bloomberg) Willem Buiter, Citigroup chief economist, sees a storm brewing in China.

This week, he estimated that there is a 55 percent chance of a made-in-China global recession in the not too distant future, which he defines as a period of sub-2 percent global growth.

Without a massive, consumer-focused stimulus plan, he argues, Chinese growth will slip below 4 percent. This would constitute a recession for the world's second-largest economy, according to Buiter, and the rest of the world wouldn't be insulated from the slowdown.

Buiter appeared on BloombergTV to discuss his headline-grabbing call.

The cause of his consternation is the immense debt that Chinese non-financial companies have racked up in a short period of time. Over the past decade, the indebtedness of China's private sector has exploded and exceeded that of the U.S., which Buiter pointed out has a much more advanced economy and sophisticated financial system: ......................(more)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-11/citi-s-chief-economist-says-china-is-financially-out-of-control-