China 2020: Rising uncertainty may lead policymakers to 'kick the can down the road'

Can China recover from its slowdown?

The trade war has proved to be China’s defining story for 2019 and is likely to remain headline news in 2020, but questions abound regarding a potential economic slowdown for the Asian powerhouse.

However, China's economic story remains multi-faceted as opinion spans from bull to bear. "China's economy faces threats on multiple fronts in 2019 as economic consequences of the multi-year escalation in US trade tensions became evident and stimulus measures struggled to rejuvenate a fraught private sector," explained Qian Wang, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at Vanguard. "Although policymakers have modestly shifted the balance of their focus toward protecting short-term economic stability, slowing global economic growth and expectations for persistent US-China trade tensions place...