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MACQUARIE Group Limited (MBL) CEO Nicholas Moore (pictured) believes the slowdown of growth in China from 12 per cent to a target of 8 per cent is a good sign as long as it doesn’t hit the accelerator too soon.
Moore made the comments today in front of more than 200 Gold Coast business leaders at Bond University’s Business Leaders Forum.
“China is leaning on the brakes through various measures to pull back growth to more sustainable levels,” he says.
“We don’t disagree with these measures at all with growth coming back from high levels. With real estate price falls, restricted lending has meant that there is the capacity to borrow for maybe just one house, not two in China.”
Moore says it’s a question of taking the brakes off at the right time, but not hitting the accelerator too soon once more sustainable levels of growth are achieved.
With growth in China now at 10.3 per cent, the inflation curbing measure by the Chinese Government will come as welcome news to the Reserve Bank of Australia.
“We continue to be optimistic about China, its long term growth and we have facilitated that in our thinking,” says Moore.
“The forecast next year is for emerging economies like China, Brazil and India to contribute 75 per cent of world growth, while a slower recovering US and Europe will bring in 25 per cent.”
Macquarie Group has $316 billion worth of funds and assets under management with 50 per cent of its revenues in Australia.
Moore was appointed as CEO in May 2008 and is now leading the continued global growth of the organisation. In the year to March 31 2010, Macquarie reported a profit of $1.05 billion, an increase of 21 per cent on the previous year.
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