Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Nov 9, 2015 (I)

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The cover of this issue features "Special Issue: The year Ahead 2016."

(1) Dexter Roberts, China’s Consumers Need to Step Up
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/ar ... ers-need-to-step-up

Quote:

"Those two goals—fostering a consumer economy and giving GDP a short-term boost—are contradictory. Developing a consumption-driven economy means accepting growth below the 7-plus-percent annual rise of recent years, which was achieved in part by state-run banks and local government finance companies giving enterprises cheap credit to build often unneeded factories and real estate developments. [BusinessWeek does not explain further on this point]

"In the first quarter of 2015, for the first time, service industries—including jobs from lawyers to tourist guides—made up a bit more than half of GDP. The service economy grew 8.4 percent in the first nine months; manufacturing, only 6 percent.

"Service companies employ more people than manufacturers to generate the same amount of GDP. Not only are service workers more numerous, they’re also often better paid than factory hands.

"While [China's] policymakers have spent billions of dollars improving health care, expanding a pension program, building schools, and hiring teachers, consumers have pushed the savings rate up about 7 percentage points in the past decade, says Andrew Batson, China research director at Beijing-based consulting firm Gavekal Dragonomics.

China's to-do list should include: "opening state-dominated service industries such as insurance and banking to private and foreign investors. So far, signs are discouraging: The planned reform of state-owned enterprises aims to build up national champions by merging companies, not privatizing or shrinking them.

Note: summary underneath the title in print: The leadership is trying to refocus while resorting to old-fashioned stimulus.

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(2) Bruce Einhorn, Korea Fears It Will Age Into Japan.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/ar ... will-age-into-japan

Quote:

"Sometime in 2016, the size of South Korea’s working-age population will peak at 37 million

"Japan’s population reached a high in 2008 and has fallen ever since. One in four Japanese is 65 or older, and the working-age population peaked in 1995. In South Korea, those 65 and older make up 13 percent of the population [Taiwan is about the same in this and total fertility rate], up from 10 percent in 2007, according to Statistics Korea. By some measures, the problem is worse: At just 1.2 children per woman, Korea’s birthrate is lower than Japan’s 1.4.

"domestic demand [or consumption] accounting for about half of [S Korea's] GDP

Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: The country's low birthrate will lead to a shrinking workforce.
(b) PLEASE view the bar cgart before reading the text.
(c) "A 2015 report by London-based nonprofit HelpAge International measured quality of life for the elderly in 96 countries. Japan made the top 10, but South Korea came in at 60, third-to-last among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations, ahead of Turkey and Greece."

Switzerland tops the 2015 Index: Global AgeWatch Index 2015.
www.helpage.org/global-agewatch/ ... bal-rankings-table/

Japan is No 8; US No 9, and China No 52. Taiwan not included.