A shift down in gear for Chinese economic growth has sparked concerns about the future health of the global economy, particularly in emerging markets such as SA. China, the world's second-largest economy, has reported the slowest economic growth rate since 1990, causing Beijing to ramp up stimulus measures and seemingly heightening the urgency to settle trade scores with the US. China grew 6.6% last year from 6.9% in 2017 as domestic demand waned and due to economic and trade disputes with the US. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts 6.2% for 2019. US growth is expected to be 2.5%. In the past five years the Chinese economy has also shifted from commodity-intensive infrastructure investment towards consumption, which may become problematic for SA. Momentum Investments economist Sanisha Packirisamy said though SA had benefited from previous higher infrastructure investment growth in China, "in an environment where the growth focus shifts to the consumer, future Chinese com...
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