Don't count on China to rescue the West

Western markets are looking at a long, painful period of stagnant growth. But the idea that emerging markets - and China in particular - will come to the rescue is far-fetched, says Merryn Somerset Webb. China has more than enough problems of its own.

The rose-tinted glasses of the investing classes have finally fallen from their eyes when it comes to Western markets, at least. Suddenly, everyone recognises that we are entering, at best, a long period of low growth. They also see that it is unlikely that Europe's crisis will be resolved either in a hurry, or in such a way that doesn't cause horrible pain somewhere. So much so, that they are even pricing quite a lot of reality into the markets.

But that doesn't mean that the City's global strategists are feeling down. Far from it. Mention collapsing growth to the average economist, and he'll tell you not to bother yourself too much. While Europe and the US might be stuck in a stagnating rut, the emerging world is a different matter altogether. There, exciting, vibrant economies are operating independently of us. They've 'decoupled', they are growing at speed, and their energy will save the world.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.