James Chanos, founder of Kynikos Associates LP, first noticed China’s real estate bubble in 2009. He has then correctly anticipated the slow-down in the Chinese economy, which started in 2010. Now he has more bad news for people banking on reforms to save the day.
“The trend is unmistakable. It’s down. Surprises are going to be on the downside,” he said at a panel discussion at The China Institute in New York on Sept. 22.
He convincingly dispelled notions the economy is transitioning from an investment led growth model to a consumer-driven one.
“China is reforming and they are going to transition ... to a consumer economy. I’ve been hearing that for five years.” he said, pointing out the investment component of GDP has only fallen by 2 percentage points since 2010. “Just saying it will happen doesn’t mean it will happen.”
Too Much Debt
Chanos is also cautious on China’s ability to escape the middle-income trap through innovation. “We are still waiting for that one on China,” he said.
His main thesis has always been that China uses too much debt to fund growth, without paying attention to generating returns. “Any entity that is growing rapidly but below its cost of capital is headed for an iceberg,” he said. Returns are less than economic ... They'll have to go through their credit event.”
“If [the U.S. economy] was growing its credit by 30 or 40 percent per year, we'd be growing high single digits ourselves,” he said, discrediting the view China’s historic growth has been an economic miracle: “There is not a lot of magic here if you can borrow the money.”
However, this does not mean the economy faces complete collapse tomorrow, according to Chanos.
