When Xi Jinping ascended to China's top political rung last November, he called a halt to excessive banquets. The policy is known as four dishes and a soup, named for the modest meals that awaited Communist cadres. It's a catchy populist slogan for a public fed up with reports of spendthrift officials wasting public funds. But it's only a modest entree compared to the far greater challenge facing President Xi and his political peers in curbing corruption in public life. Xi and others have identified widespread corruption as a grave threat to China's political stability. So, too, did their predecessors, which is why cynics had assumed that Xi's anti-graft drive was a temporary PR stunt. However, investment bank Nomura doesn't think it's all flim-flam . In an equity strategy report, its analysts argues that, four months on, Xi's crackdown looks and feels like a genuine attempt at reform by leaders who prefer structural changes over economic growth. If so, luxury retailers and overpriced liquor would be the losers, while mass-market brands should be more resilient.
Reported by Forbes.com 32 minutes ago.
↧