Standard Chartered bosses say that fears of a China-US trade war under a second Trump presidency are exaggerated. They said the real estate problems in the country were “largely behind us”.
Bill Winters, the chief executive of the London-based bank, has played down any impact the strained relationship between Washington and Beijing may have on its business.
Winters said to journalists on Tuesday the US administration under Joe Biden had been “very hawkish” on China, implementing trade sanctions and restrictions that hadn’t exactly helped thaw relations with the largest economy in the world.
Winters stated that “whoever wins this election – Harris or Trump – will likely continue to be hawkish about China.”
Winters said that any pressure to open China up to the rest the world would boost business for a trans-border lender such as Standard Chartered.
Winters stated that the more pressure China faces from its international partners, they are more likely to open up in order to become a major player in global trade and investment.
He continued: “So, I won’t tell you that we are not concerned because tension is bad for the global mood and can undermine business confidence in some measure. This does not affect our business, and you could even say quite the opposite.
The bank’s pre-tax profit of $1.6bn ($1.25bn ) for the second quarter beat analysts’ expectations by $1.5bn, in part due to the growth in its wealth division, which manages and invests the money of wealthy clients.
The official figures released earlier in the month showed that China’s second-quarter economy growth was 4.7%, which fell short of expectations. A 5.1% increase had been expected.
Standard Chartered warned China’s GDP growth rate would “unlikely” return to levels before the pandemic, but Winters said policymakers are being very deliberate about their management of a maturing economic system. This includes a recent property crisis that led to Evergrande being forced to liquidate.
Diego De Giorgi said that it would be “foolish” to predict a bottom in the China real estate crisis. He believed that the financial ripple effect had been mostly accounted for.
De Giorgi stated that the problem was largely behind them. In February, it said that it expected a maximum loss of $1.2bn due to its Chinese real estate portfolio.
Winters said, “We are confident that China’s growth will continue to be strong.” Winters added, “We have every confidence that China will maintain strong growth.”
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