Reuters
Folk artists on stilts practice ahead of a performance to celebrate the traditional Chinese Spring Festival on the second day of the Chinese Lunar New Year at Dongyue Temple, in Beijing, February 1, 2014.
The post, by Fergus Cumming in the Bank's Monetary Assessment and Strategy Division, breaks down the £1.7 trillion ($2.6 trillion) wiped off the Shanghai and Shenzhen Composite indexes in the initial 22-day summer market rout this year.
The scale of China, and the amounts of money flowing in and out of the market, is truly mindboggling.
The £1.7 trillion loss is equivalent to:
- the total value of goods and services produced in the United Kingdom in 2013
- more than the total outstanding stock of lending to
UK households - more than a third of the value of all gold that has ever been mined
- more than double the value of Euro notes and coins in circulation
- seven and a half times the nominal value of outstanding Greek government debt
Perhaps even more incredible is the £3.6 trillion ($5.6 trillion) the Chinese markets added in the 12 month run-up to the June.
In that one year, Chinese markets grew by a bit more than the combined market capitalization of every single company listed on the Japanese stock market.
Here's what that looks like:
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