With Chinese growth slowing rapidly, the biggest surprise from Thursday’s meeting of the Communist Party’s top policy-making body was what didn’t happen: No new fiscal stimulus to juice growth; no relenting from the Covid-19 lockdowns that have crushed investment and consumer spending; and no letup in a regulatory campaign that has pummeled the all-important property market.
Instead, senior Chinese leaders effectively dropped their official growth target for the year, an implicit acknowledgment of the strains facing the world’s second-largest economy during a critical political year for leader Xi Jinping, who is expected to break with recent precedent and seek a third term in power this fall.
