Prophesies of investment and growth hangovers are generally made about every post-Olympic period, but the mainland's sizzling economic growth is expected to escape this fate after the curtain fell on the Beijing Games last month.
Two weeks after the closing ceremony, some analysts are sounding gloomy about the immediate outlook for economic growth, but others say the worries about a post-Games slump are misplaced.
The pace of economic expansion may slip to the slowest in four years, according to Zhu Baoliang of the State Information Centre, a top government think-tank. Full-year growth is expected to slow from last year's 11.9 per cent to 10 per cent and into single digits next year, he said.
Last week, Hu Xiaolian, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, warned the economy continued to face pressure from inflation and softening external demand.
'The economy is still facing significant problems, with the uncertainty of the international and domestic environments adding risk to economic and financial development in China,' Ms Hu told a central bankers' conference in Argentina.
The problem for policymakers is that the close of the Olympics has coincided with a global slump that is weakening demand for mainland exports, stimulating fears that the mainland will see a much more serious slowdown than forecast.