December 19, 2025 • 8 mins
In November China's economy showed clear signs of strain as investment, consumption, and industrial output all weakened more than anticipated.
"I think the most worrying thing is fixed asset investment actually, which has now declined for the 3rd month in a row," Asia business correspondent Peter Lewis told Andrew Dickens
"We've never seen that before."
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. It'd be
follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on
iHeartRadio is coming. Please don't go fish.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Killing. Welcome back to the program. And so the battle
continues on the text ninety two ninety two small charms
appliers about whether a duty lawyer on one hundred and
eight dollars an hour as well paid or not. And
of course we've got some people who are kred givers
saying I'd kill for that sort of money because they're
(00:48):
on less and we know that. And we've got another
text in here saying, Dicken's a caregether doesn't go to
law school for five years and come out with a
massive debt. So that is a stupid comparison, but that
is true. But at the same time, a caregether lives
with the person that they're given care with, possibly for
all their lives. Many caregivers never work at all and
can never work at all because they have somebody that
(01:09):
they have to give care too and it's not their choice,
and it is a full time profession. And the work
they do is very important because it saves the state
from the money spent from institutionalization so that's not a
fair comparison either. The duty lawyer is doing something of
their own volition and of their own choice, but many
(01:30):
caregivers have not been given the choice. It's their familial obligation.
And really if they were given the choice and they
could actually make that decision, they wouldn't be doing what
they're doing. At the same time, both of them, the
duty lawyer and the caregiver, are doing God's work and
I thank you for that. It is twenty two to seven.
(01:51):
After Asia we go Peter Lewis, good evening to you.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Good evening, Antrew.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
So China's economy. We're always looking at China's economy. It's
got a bit of strain. Considering the whole tarer for
and considering everything, it's been doing well, but it's showing
signs of strain. In November it is indeed.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
I mean, if you look into the details, we had
a whole load of data on fixed ass's investment, on
retail sales, on industrial production. I think the most worrying
thing is fixed acid investment actually, which has now declined
for the third month in a row. Now We've never
seen that before. Since data was first published by China
(02:32):
on its economy. Normally, there's been a lot of interest
in investing in China, but what this is now term
negative and it shows that both businesses and households just
don't want to invest at the moment in the Chinese economy.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Now.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
One of the main reasons for that is this slide
in house prices, which we've seen now for four years,
NonStop investments in property down about sixteen percent from a
year ago, and that's being transmitted more to the consumer side.
What consumers are doing is they're looking to pay down
debt at the moment rather than spend money and build
(03:13):
up new expenditure. So this is going to be a
challenge for China next year because Rejijingping wants to reorientate
the economy towards more the domestic side and less reliance
on exports. Many overseas countries have called for that as well.
They're saying we had Immanual Macron in Beijing just last
(03:36):
month saying that the pain that's all this reliance and
exports was causing to overseas economies was unbearable, and the
IMF has called for China to rebalance its economy over
the coming months. More towards domestic consumption. So this is
going to be the big challenge for China next year. Now,
(03:57):
in some ways, I mean, you know, it's in a
good position to be able to do that. If you
look at this economy overall, it's growing at five percent
year on year. Now that's a good rate of growth.
Many countries will be would love to see that sort
of growth. But it's very very lopsided, relying very very
heavily on exports. So this is going to be the
(04:19):
big challenge for China in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Absolutely, the Chinese tiger, though, has been going great guns
over the last fifteen twenty years. But Ji Jimping gave
a very interesting warning to his officials because he doesn't
want them to chase what he would call reckless GDP expansion.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yes, indeed, and he's talking a lot about in particular
reckless sort of themes like large industrial parks, building all
these unnecessary cities, of some of which he's promoted. He
promoted a huge new mega city south of Beijing which
was supposed to eventually take over from Beijing, but that
(04:59):
never really happened, and all that's there is empty apartment
blocks and empty empty factories. But he wants an end
to that, and he wants sort of economic plans to
be based around sustainable long term gains, particularly trying to
(05:21):
boost the sort of green economy, and he wants to
change the way in which local government officials are evaluated.
He said they shouldn't be judged on GDP growth rates,
but on broader achievements such as improving people's well being,
maintaining stability, on so on. This bit reminds me a
little bit of Bhutan's measure of its well being by
(05:43):
gross national happiness rather than gross national product. But he
wants he wants to change the whole way in which
officials are measured so that they're not tempted to chase
sort of unrealistic growth targets and using unsustainable methods and
fake statistics and the likes to achieve that. So he
(06:07):
wants sustainability and more long term goals in the economic
growth environment.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Well, it helps when you have a domestic market of
like one point two one point three billion people that
you can survive on that. And they've seen the shocks
that have come from America, and they've also been developing
while they've been doing all the export. They've also been
doing all that incredible power network and as you say,
sustainable green power production and building data centers and all
that sort of thing. So they're quite self reliant. Quite
(06:35):
a remarkable economy, it's been for another country, that's kind
of Thailand, where things are not getting any easier. They've
just dissolved their parliament and they're still in conflict with Cambodia.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yes, indeed, I mean Thailand has never really recovered from
the pandemic. It's an economy that's very dependent upon tourism
and it's just really struggled to get momentum behind its
economy since that, since then, and that's the case today
as well. It also has a rather unstable politically environment.
(07:09):
The government has to rely on rather large, unwieldly coalitions
and there's elections on a regular basis. Well, now we've
got another one. The prime minister disaster to dissolve parliament,
which the King has granted, so that means there now
has to be another election within forty five to sixty days.
(07:30):
Rather alarmingly, the Prime Minister Anatin is sort of turning
to nationalistic sentiments. This often seems to happen with governments
doesn't it around Asia, around the world actually, when they're
fighting for their political survival. So he's sort of rather
relying on these border clashes with Cambodia and taking a
(07:51):
very hard line stance on that. He doesn't want a
cease fire at all until basically Cambodia sort of capitulates,
and I hope it will boost him that hard line
stance in the polls ahead of the election. The problem,
what is this clash with Cambodia is really disrupting trade
(08:16):
at the moment and also putting tourists off as well,
so it's not helping the economy. And there's a risk
that if these migrant labor flows, which Thailand is very
dependent upon, are disrupted, or even worse, if Donald Trump,
who helped broker the peace agreement between the two countries,
decides to reimpose tariffs on Thailand, then its economy is
(08:40):
really going to suffer.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yep, thank you so much. Peter Lewis out of the Asia.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
For more from News Talks, there'd be listen live on
air or online and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on IR Radio
You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. It'd be
follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on
iHeartRadio is coming. Please don't go fish.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Killing. Welcome back to the program. And so the battle
continues on the text ninety two ninety two small charms
appliers about whether a duty lawyer on one hundred and
eight dollars an hour as well paid or not. And
of course we've got some people who are kred givers
saying I'd kill for that sort of money because they're
(00:48):
on less and we know that. And we've got another
text in here saying, Dicken's a caregether doesn't go to
law school for five years and come out with a
massive debt. So that is a stupid comparison, but that
is true. But at the same time, a caregether lives
with the person that they're given care with, possibly for
all their lives. Many caregivers never work at all and
can never work at all because they have somebody that
(01:09):
they have to give care too and it's not their choice,
and it is a full time profession. And the work
they do is very important because it saves the state
from the money spent from institutionalization so that's not a
fair comparison either. The duty lawyer is doing something of
their own volition and of their own choice, but many
(01:30):
caregivers have not been given the choice. It's their familial obligation.
And really if they were given the choice and they
could actually make that decision, they wouldn't be doing what
they're doing. At the same time, both of them, the
duty lawyer and the caregiver, are doing God's work and
I thank you for that. It is twenty two to seven.
(01:51):
After Asia we go Peter Lewis, good evening to you.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Good evening, Antrew.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
So China's economy. We're always looking at China's economy. It's
got a bit of strain. Considering the whole tarer for
and considering everything, it's been doing well, but it's showing
signs of strain. In November it is indeed.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
I mean, if you look into the details, we had
a whole load of data on fixed ass's investment, on
retail sales, on industrial production. I think the most worrying
thing is fixed acid investment actually, which has now declined
for the third month in a row. Now We've never
seen that before. Since data was first published by China
(02:32):
on its economy. Normally, there's been a lot of interest
in investing in China, but what this is now term
negative and it shows that both businesses and households just
don't want to invest at the moment in the Chinese economy.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Now.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
One of the main reasons for that is this slide
in house prices, which we've seen now for four years,
NonStop investments in property down about sixteen percent from a
year ago, and that's being transmitted more to the consumer side.
What consumers are doing is they're looking to pay down
debt at the moment rather than spend money and build
(03:13):
up new expenditure. So this is going to be a
challenge for China next year because Rejijingping wants to reorientate
the economy towards more the domestic side and less reliance
on exports. Many overseas countries have called for that as well.
They're saying we had Immanual Macron in Beijing just last
(03:36):
month saying that the pain that's all this reliance and
exports was causing to overseas economies was unbearable, and the
IMF has called for China to rebalance its economy over
the coming months. More towards domestic consumption. So this is
going to be the big challenge for China next year. Now,
(03:57):
in some ways, I mean, you know, it's in a
good position to be able to do that. If you
look at this economy overall, it's growing at five percent
year on year. Now that's a good rate of growth.
Many countries will be would love to see that sort
of growth. But it's very very lopsided, relying very very
heavily on exports. So this is going to be the
(04:19):
big challenge for China in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Absolutely, the Chinese tiger, though, has been going great guns
over the last fifteen twenty years. But Ji Jimping gave
a very interesting warning to his officials because he doesn't
want them to chase what he would call reckless GDP expansion.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yes, indeed, and he's talking a lot about in particular
reckless sort of themes like large industrial parks, building all
these unnecessary cities, of some of which he's promoted. He
promoted a huge new mega city south of Beijing which
was supposed to eventually take over from Beijing, but that
(04:59):
never really happened, and all that's there is empty apartment
blocks and empty empty factories. But he wants an end
to that, and he wants sort of economic plans to
be based around sustainable long term gains, particularly trying to
(05:21):
boost the sort of green economy, and he wants to
change the way in which local government officials are evaluated.
He said they shouldn't be judged on GDP growth rates,
but on broader achievements such as improving people's well being,
maintaining stability, on so on. This bit reminds me a
little bit of Bhutan's measure of its well being by
(05:43):
gross national happiness rather than gross national product. But he
wants he wants to change the whole way in which
officials are measured so that they're not tempted to chase
sort of unrealistic growth targets and using unsustainable methods and
fake statistics and the likes to achieve that. So he
(06:07):
wants sustainability and more long term goals in the economic
growth environment.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Well, it helps when you have a domestic market of
like one point two one point three billion people that
you can survive on that. And they've seen the shocks
that have come from America, and they've also been developing
while they've been doing all the export. They've also been
doing all that incredible power network and as you say,
sustainable green power production and building data centers and all
that sort of thing. So they're quite self reliant. Quite
(06:35):
a remarkable economy, it's been for another country, that's kind
of Thailand, where things are not getting any easier. They've
just dissolved their parliament and they're still in conflict with Cambodia.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yes, indeed, I mean Thailand has never really recovered from
the pandemic. It's an economy that's very dependent upon tourism
and it's just really struggled to get momentum behind its
economy since that, since then, and that's the case today
as well. It also has a rather unstable politically environment.
(07:09):
The government has to rely on rather large, unwieldly coalitions
and there's elections on a regular basis. Well, now we've
got another one. The prime minister disaster to dissolve parliament,
which the King has granted, so that means there now
has to be another election within forty five to sixty days.
(07:30):
Rather alarmingly, the Prime Minister Anatin is sort of turning
to nationalistic sentiments. This often seems to happen with governments
doesn't it around Asia, around the world actually, when they're
fighting for their political survival. So he's sort of rather
relying on these border clashes with Cambodia and taking a
(07:51):
very hard line stance on that. He doesn't want a
cease fire at all until basically Cambodia sort of capitulates,
and I hope it will boost him that hard line
stance in the polls ahead of the election. The problem,
what is this clash with Cambodia is really disrupting trade
(08:16):
at the moment and also putting tourists off as well,
so it's not helping the economy. And there's a risk
that if these migrant labor flows, which Thailand is very
dependent upon, are disrupted, or even worse, if Donald Trump,
who helped broker the peace agreement between the two countries,
decides to reimpose tariffs on Thailand, then its economy is
(08:40):
really going to suffer.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yep, thank you so much. Peter Lewis out of the Asia.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
For more from News Talks, there'd be listen live on
air or online and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on IR Radio
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.