My very cute three year old nephew Colby went to visit his paternal grandparents. His Taiwanese grandmother was understandably pretty concerned and unimpressed with his Mandarin (or lack thereof). When pressed to say something (ANYTHING) in Mandarin, he finally blurted out 'Ni Fang Pi'. Google this yourself but not nice! I found it hilarious. Nobody else did. Thankfully I don't speak Mandarin as I would definitely get the blame for this.
Anyway, I do wish I spoke Mandarin, as all eyes are on China right now. A lot of things going on as it's a transition year with a new leader preparing to take over. Not to mention ongoing concerns of a potential housing bubble collapse and some stress in the banking system. Thankfully the National People's Congress has assembled this week to discuss it all. However, the first thing they do is cut the GDP growth forecast from 8% to 7.5%. This is a big deal as China has targeted 8% growth since 2005.
Not a great start to the week and markets are trading weaker off the back of it. China's now the world's second largest economy and clearly a big driver of global growth. So expect China to get a lot of air-time this week. Makes for a good time for us to all to do a little China homework. Kind of like Colby.
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