The writer is chief economist at Enodo Economics
本文作者是伊诺多经济公司(Enodo Economics)首席经济学家
Just how bad is the economic distress rippling through the Chinese economy? The bankruptcy of China’s largest private real estate company, Evergrande, has generated international attention. But the travails of China’s small and medium-size firms are less documented, and now new rules designed to reduce risk are further stressing small borrowers that need credit to survive.
危机在中国经济中的扩散到底有多严重？中国最大民营房地产企业恒大(Evergrande)的破产引起了国际关注。但中国中小企业的困境却鲜有记录，如今旨在降低风险的新规定进一步增加了小型借款人的压力，而他们需要获得信贷才能生存下去。
While firms like Evergrande represent a risk because of their size — the company’s liabilities are estimated at $300bn — defaults by local firms reflect the breadth of the trouble in the Chinese economy with SMEs providing 80 per cent of urban employment.
恒大（其负债估计为3000亿美元）这样的企业因其规模庞大而构成风险，但中国地方企业的违约反映出中国经济困境涉及面之广——中小企业提供了80%的城市就业机会。
Beijing is aware of the liquidity plight of SMEs and does want China’s banks to lend to them more. But so far policymakers have not only failed to move the needle but have also focused on preventing risk at the expense of real economic activity by private sector firms. In short, what Beijing needs is to embrace private companies as part of the solution to what ails the Chinese economy — not part of the problem.
中国政府意识到中小企业面临的流动性困境，也确实希望中国的银行能向中小企业提供更多贷款。但到目前为止，政策制定者不仅未能改变现状，而且还把重点放在了防范风险上，为此不惜牺牲私营企业的实体经济活动。简单的结论是，中国政府需要拥抱民营企业，承认民营企业可以为化解中国经济问题提供部分解决方案，并且它们本身并非中国经济问题的一部分。