What China’s economic troubles mean for the world

Only eight months ago, China’s economy was expected to roar back to life.

Zero-Covid had been abandoned

, and the country’s shoppers and tourists allowed to roam free. Yet the rebound has fizzled out, with weak growth and deflation the result. This will affect not only its people. What happens in the world’s second-largest economy matters beyond its borders, too.

Because China is so big, its changing economic fortunes can drive overall global growth figures. But a slowing China also directly affects other countries’ prospects. Its households and companies will buy fewer goods and services than they would have otherwise, with consequences for both the producers of these goods and other consumers of them. In some places, China’s difficulties will be a source of pain. In others, though, they will bring relief.