New Year Heralds A Soft Landing For Chinese Economic Dragon, Says Article
 
MELBOURNE  Feb. 2, 2012--The world appears to be in store for more turmoil and trouble, according to the Chinese astrological calendar. Indeed, this may not seem remote, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said in a report titled, "Credit Outlook: Chinese Dragon To Fly In To A Soft Landing In 2012", published today. We expect the debt crisis in Europe and the weak U.S. recovery to reduce demand and cause a drag on China's export-dependent economy. The country experienced a slowdown in GDP growth to 9.2% in 2011.
 
"We expect the Chinese economy to fall further in 2012 to about 8%--our base-case scenario for our current ratings," Standard & Poor's credit analyst Terry Chan said. "We also project that there is a one-in-four chance of a medium landing of 7% growth to occur, and a one-in-ten likelihood of a hard landing of 5% GDP expansion."
 
China's industry sectors would experience varying impacts from the marked slowdowns of the latter two scenarios. The impact could range from very high to low, which could mean from defaults to no downgrades. We believe the country's real estate sector and local governments would suffer most in a significant slowdown.