The last month has seen China reach some important milestones. August data had already begun to show that the economy was not in a downward spiral and was bottoming out. That was reinforced with third-quarter GDP data, which beat expectations with a 4.9% year-on-year growth rate. Together with some helpful historical revisions, this means that the hurdle for achieving 5% full-year growth is now very low. Fourth-quarter GDP now only has to achieve a 4.2% YoY growth rate for full-year GDP to hit 5.0% (rounding up to one decimal place). Given all the distortions taking place last year, it may be more helpful to consider ... (full story)