China May Enter Slower-Growth Phase after Pandemic, Ex-PBOC Researcher

China's economy may enter a slower-growth phase after the pandemic as the recovery in consumer demand will take time, said Wu Ge, the chief economist of Changjiang Securities and a former researcher at the People's Bank of China in an interview with Yicai.com. As the debt levels of the government and the society at-large continue to rise, the core of the entire economy including interest rates will trend lower, Wu said. China is still implementing countercyclical adjustment measures despite claims otherwise by policymakers, as indicated by increased sales of special-purpose LGBs and high-frequency data on lending, Wu said. China is expected to take more monetary measures as part of its countercyclical adjustment through possibly greater lending, social financing, said Wu. Monetary policy tends to be an overall-scale issue, even as policymakers said they want to target helping small businesses, as stabilizing the economy is the biggest help to SMEs, and only on this basis, can the innovative and targeted injections take effect, said Wu.