BEIJING: British companies operating in China feel that doing business in the world’s second-largest economy has become harder over the past year due to sluggish economic conditions and they expect that situation to remain in 2025, a survey found.
That is despite China rolling out a series of stimulus measures over the past few months to bolster the US$19 trillion economy, the British Chamber of Commerce in China found in its annual sentiment survey released on Tuesday (Dec 3).
The findings by the lobby group, based on members’ views over September and November, revealed that 58 per cent of companies felt that doing business in China had become more difficult over the past year, with 86 per cent of such firms blaming economic factors.
“British businesses continue to face significant headwinds, from China’s economic slowdown to regulatory hurdles,” the chamber said. “Revenue expectations are down, and businesses’ optimism for 2025 is low despite the announcement of stimulus measures.”
AstraZeneca, BP, Jaguar Land Rover, Standard Chartered, and Rolls-Royce are among the 400 members of the chamber.
Doing business in China had become tougher for five consecutive years and only 41 per cent of its members were expecting to have a better time next year, the survey said.
China’s economy has struggled to mount a durable recovery following the abandonment of Beijing’s strict COVID-19 curbs in late 2022, leading analysts to warn that a period of stagnation could be on the cards, as seen in Japan in the 1990s.
The UK and China’s bilateral engagement has picked up in recent months. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy paid a visit to Beijing in October and Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil earlier this month.
Optimism among British firms over the country’s ties with China hit its highest in the survey’s seven-year history after Lammy’s visit, the chamber said.
But how the relationship will take shape is uncertain as concerns over Beijing’s state subsidies fuelling overcapacity threaten a two-front trade war with the US and the European Union, it said.
“Shaping a long-term plan for China will be difficult as the US embarks on another Trump presidency and the EU adopts an increasingly protectionist stance against China,” the chamber said.