China Will Likely Escape Recession

There've been quite a few China experts predicting doomsday for China, therefore eliminating the last best hope for the world economy, recently. I have to beg to differ.

Yes, China is anything but detached from the rest of the world and indeed has all the major symptoms has the developed world: housing bubble, bank bad assets, demand destruction, unemployment. But the degree of suffering for China is much less severe in every one of the problems.

Residential mortage market in China is still in its infant stage. Securitization is non-existent. Down payment routinely goes to 40%, even 50%, in most of the localities except for the few big cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Therefore, for the same 20% drop in housing prices, the impact on homeowners and lenders is much less in China. In addition, the percentage of commercial homeowner in China is still tiny in comparison. Most city dwellers live in government and/or employer subsidized housing and owe little to nothing on them. Virtually all country folks live in houses they built with cash.

Financial reform in China had been widely critized, both domestically and internationally, for being too conservative, even paranoid. Of course, now in retrospect, the conservatism/paranoia shielded them from disaster. Except for a few companies going through Hong Kong, there's virtually no exposure to derivatives of any kind except commodities futures, which is tiny on the macroscopic level. Bank leverage remains very low. Commercial banks and investment banks are still strictly segregated. It's hard to make any credible estimate on the scope ofbad assets in Chinese banks. But even if it turns out to be as bad as the most perssimistic estimates say, at least we can be sure there's no chain-reaction mechanism in the system.

China The Export Country is perhaps the biggest myth in modern economy. Yes, they do export a lot. But unlike Japan or Korea, China's exports for the most part are more accurately classified as re-export. Export is to buy iron ore or steel and sell $50k cars. To buy wool and sell sweaters is hardly export from macroeconomics perspective because the value-added is so small. As a result, what happens to Chinese economy in a demand destruction scenario is that both import, a big part of which is the raw materials and components for its re-export industry, and export fall more or less in tandem. This has been shown by the relatively small drop in Chinese GDP as well as overal trade balance in Q4 08 vs the dramatic drop in Japan and Korea. In fact, such a proof already presented itself in 1997. Almost all of China's export competitors had their currencies devalued up to 80% while the Yuan stayed almost constant. There was tremendous domestic pressure to devlue the Yuan, and deafening cry of Chinese export collapse from international experts. Yet nothing happened. Export tax rebate cannot possibly explain for more than 10% of the cost savings. The reason is simple: Chinese economy was mostly re-export driven. As their cost of buying raw materials and components dropped for a large portion, their cost also went down. Yet the world continues to blindly call China The Export Country.

Domestically, anecdotal evidence I've heard shows what the governments, both central and local ones, have been doing to stimulate consumption make Helicopter Ben look like a timid amateur. They hand out cash and/or shopping certificates to whole cities of people. They order all shops to have 30% sales. Is it over-reaction? Sign of desperation? Will such draconian measures bring dire consequences later on? These are all legitmate questions. But at least you can't blame them for not trying. And the shock-and-awe Yuan carpet bombing apparently has been making some impact so far. It's much harder to make Chinese people spend than most westerners imagine.

Finally, unemployment. Numbers like 20M have been thrown around in the western China expert circle like asteroids heading to Earth. I'm sorry, this is just plain ignorance to the vast difference in lifestyle between Chinese peasants and westerners. An average US homeowner may lose her home within months of unemployment. But a Chinese migrant worker from countryside can easily go back to her old lifestyle and live for years, purely on her savings from the few years' city jobs, without as much a psychological trauma as losing one-night's sleep. Metropolitan life in China is still largely based on cash and savings. Rural life in China is still mostly self-sufficient on top of cash and savings -- you don't need much cash and savings at all.

More likely than not, China will escape any severe downturn and remain one of the few growth spots throughout this global recession. And it would not be any miracle, just a combination of fundamental factors, as well as a bit of luck.

What does it mean?

1. China region will probably be one of the better equities markets for 09, possibly beyond.

2. Chinese bonds, if you can get your hands on some, are probably cheap. CDS on Chinese sovereign is going for ~250 bps. It may come down a lot once the world realizes the above.

3. Commodities fall may not last as long or severe as doomsday sayers predict.

4. Upside pressure on Yuan will probably resume as soon as the world economy stabilizes somewhat and the USD carry trade unwind stops.