In january 1992 Deng Xiaoping, then China's paramount leader, arrived in Shenzhen for the start of his month-long "Southern tour". He extolled the success of the coastal special economic zones, lambasted his reactionary opponents in Beijing and ushered in a torrid economic boom that forced inflation above 25%. China has not suffered from double-digit inflation since. But the episode did lasting harm to the credibility of its macro-economic stewardship. According to Jonathan Anderson of ubs, many outsiders see "the monetary authorities as unreconstructed relics of the socialist planning era without much grasp of market tools." They fear that the economy is '"beyond control", prone to speculative excesses followed by clumsy crackdowns.
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