The government has consistently talked about its objective of reining in investment and encouraging consumption to make growth more sustainable. In practice, though, investment grew from about 32 per cent of GDP in 1990 to about 49 per cent last year, a record high. In the 1970s, during its high-growth era, Japan barely hit 40 per cent.

“It just so happens that every time there is a need for stimulus, the most common channels are still investment oriented,” says Louis Kuijs, formerly a World Bank economist in Beijing, now based at the Fung Global Institute, a Hong-Kong-based think-tank. “These patterns have a momentum and only with very bold reform measures would we expect to see this pattern shifting substantially. We have seen some reform measures, but not truly very major ones.”

It remains clear, from one perspective, that China still needs more investment. Its capital stock per worker is just 8 per cent that of the US, giving it plenty of room to invest more, according to HSBC, the UK bank. This is obvious to anyone who has been to its sprawling cities from Shenyang in the north to Guangzhou in the south, which have clogged roads and little in the way of underground train lines.