Chinese shares slumped yesterday as senior policymakers failed to dispel jitters before a two-day gathering of the world’s top finance ministers and central bankers in Shanghai today.
As finance officials from G20 countries began to descend on the city to discuss the state of the global economy — much of which is in thrall to the slowdown in growth in China — a senior central bank official yesterday sounded a note of reassurance. “For the foreseeable future our demand will remain fairly strong,” said Yi Gang, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China. “We will continue to increase imports of crude oil by maybe 7 or 10 per cent a year and for other commodities we will have very strong demand.”
But stock markets were painting a different picture. The Shanghai Composite ended 6.41 per cent lower at 2,741.2 while the tech-focused Shenzhen Composite dropped 7.34 per cent to 1,738.67.