It's Official: China Is Slowing Down
It's not time to panic, but there is reason for concern. Don't take my word for it. Ask China's policymakers. They cut interest rates for the first time in four years in June, and then followed that up with a surprise second cut in July. And lately they've talked about ramping up investment spending to push up growth.
This might be as bad as it gets -- or not. The good news was that bank loans grew more than expected in June. The bad news was that electricity usage was flat from the previous year. Both measures are supposed to be more reliable proxies for growth than the growth numbers themselves. The chart below from Scotty Barber of Reuters puts the electricity usage story in nice perspective.
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