China announces reforms for investors due to economic problems

China will carry out several reforms to "increase investor confidence in the capital market," the republic's Securities Regulatory Commission announced, according to the Financial Times.

The regulator said it would look into extending trading hours in the equity and bond markets, maintain a "reasonable pace" for new IPOs, and call on public and large privately-listed firms to step up mergers and acquisitions, lower brokerage processing fees to stimulate the growth of trading activity.

As the FT explains, underwhelming economic growth is hurting China's stock and bond markets . The republic's stock market has lagged far behind other countries this year, with the core CSI 300 index down more than 2% against an increase of almost 14% for the US S&P 500.

In the second quarter of this year, Chinese GDP grew only 0.8% compared to the first quarter. China's Politburo was forced to admit last month that the economic recovery from the covid pandemic is "painfully painful."

Prices for basic goods (except for food and energy) have already fallen into the "deflationary zone" due to weak consumer demand, analysts at Citigroup said.

“They have some problems. This is not good, because when bad people have problems, they do bad things, ”American President Joe Biden assessed the state of the Chinese economy . He also asked to worry about Beijing, but at the same time not to worry, because China is "experiencing real economic difficulties", and also called Chinese leader Xi Jinping a dictator. A few days later, the American leader again said that China had "huge problems."

According to the FT, Chinese economists have faced a ban on public discussion of the actual economic situation in the country, as a result of which they are forced to either refuse to comment or use euphemisms. Among the issues that cannot be discussed are deflation, capital outflows, and falling prices for locally produced products.