From both a policymaker's and a bank's point of view, says Sun-bae Kim, regional economist at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, going after the consumer makes sense.

ECONOMIST: Consumer finance is Asian banks' new thing

Sun-Bae Kim of Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, points out that investment rates in emerging Asia as a whole, including China, look much healthier than in the region outside China (see chart 11).

ECONOMIST: Why oil exporters and East Asians are reluctant to spend