China’s leaders place high hopes on the vibrancy of the economy’s service sector, but in reality it has not been able to fill the void left by the decline of manufacturing. The inability of services to pick up the slack in turn creates a temptation for the government to delay overdue structural reforms while maintaining a reliance on investment-driven growth.

China’s economy is facing tougher times. Export-oriented mass production is no longer the growth driver it used to be and the transition to a higher-value added, innovation-driven industrial model has only just begun.

Thus there are big hopes riding on the service sector’s performance. First some facts: services accounted for 50 per cent of GDP for the first time in 2015, according to official statistics. At an expansion rate of 8.3 per cent, it was the only sector that grew faster than overall GDP, outperforming industry and agriculture.