Economy still skewed toward property

According to Hurun's recently released Rich List for 2012, the manufacturing sector has unseated real estate as the biggest source of wealth for China's richest people, which signals that the country's economy is slowly evolving toward a healthier structure.

Yet, just because the wealth of billionaires involved in the property sector shrunk in 2012 doesn't mean that the country's real economy has recovered, nor can this development be viewed as a sign that the dangerous bubbles in the Chinese real estate market have subsided either. Around half of the 1000 individuals on the Hurun list after all had earned their fortunes from the property industry. In contrast, only two were active in science and technology fields.

With so much money still being made from the Chinese real estate sector, the government must persist with its curbs to keep housing prices down. Not only will this will keep speculative investment money from pouring into the market but also push the economy to become more diverse.

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