Asia Unhedged would like to take a minute to address all the second-class pundits bemoaning the bubble in Chinese stocks, and predicting a significant market correction in the near future. Take this!
Warren Buffett said the Chinese stock market has another two to three years to run because the country’s population had “found a way to unlock their potential.” Buffett made the comments at the annual shareholders’ meeting of his Berkshire Hathaway investing vehicle over the weekend.
The third-richest person in the world told the annual shareholders’ meeting of Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday that China had taken much less time than the U.S. to exert great influence on global gross domestic product, adding that it is important for China and America to maintain close cooperative relations.
We can’t say Asia Unhedged always agrees with ole Warren. But when the third-richest person in the world, the man considered the greatest investor of all time, feels the same way about investing in China as Asia Unhedged, well, we’re going to take that as an affirmation that we’re on the right track.
When talking about China’s economic development, Buffett said that it took only 40 years for China to exert great influence on global GDP, while the U.S. took about 200 years, according to Global Times.
“I would not have believed a country of that size could move so far, so fast,” he said. “The country’s population had found a way to unlock their potential.”
Berkshire Hathaway’s vice chairman Charles Munger echoed the praise for China, saying he’s a big fan of what’s going on in China, and is optimistic about China’s ongoing reforms and anti-corruption campaigns.
However, there are still plenty of bears out there saying Buffett has the whole thing wrong.
“The second-quarter growth tends to have a rally because of newly started projects. So by to June, growth will slow down again,” Liu Li-Gang, ANZ chief greater china economist, told Bloomberg. “It seems like the stock market rally has not influenced Chinese consumer confidence. That is why we see very weak retail sales. The current stock market rally is not something that can be sustained. I’m positive on China for the medium term, because of government reforms, but in the short term the basis for a strong stock market rally is not there. I think we should worry about China banking system in terms of non-performing loans.”