For decades, as its economy slowly developed into the world's factory, China has been exporting cheap goods to stores near you. But as the nation battles a real estate slump and a Gen Z youth unemployment crisis, it could soon be exporting something else: economic pain in the form of deflation and sluggish growth.
After years of strict lockdowns, China’s economy is floundering and many of its decades-old problems are coming to bear. Overdevelopment has left the property market in crisis; local governments are struggling to service their growing debt burden; and the official youth unemployment rate surged to a record 21.3% in July—or as high as 46% by some third-party estimates.
