This week the Chinese government will attempt to take back control of the narrative. The release of its 2015 economic growth estimate on January 19 provides an opportunity for Beijing to argue that a renewed outburst of stock market chaos and currency policy confusion over recent weeks was just surface noise, while the underlying economy remains sound.
That China’s once-vaunted economic managers suddenly find themselves in this position is a reminder of how dramatically they too can be wrongfooted by events, albeit ones that were under their control until a series of self-inflicted policy errors.
Until China’s stock market bubble burst on June 15 — President Xi Jinping’s birthday of all days — the rest of the world was obsessed with the country’s downwards economic growth trajectory.