Chinese consumer spending grew at its slowest pace in 15 years and factories eased up last month, official data showed yesterday, raising the prospect of fresh stimulus measures as the economy sputters.
The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics said retail sales growth slowed to 8.1 percent, the weakest monthly pace since May 2003 and short of forecasts.
That comes after data last weekend showed a sharp drop in growth for imports and exports, as well as easing inflation, while the economy expanded at its slowest pace for nine years in the third quarter.
Chinese National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Mao Shengyong (毛盛勇) said there “was little anxiety” about hitting China’s annual economic growth target of 6.5 percent this year, which is well down from the 6.9 percent registered last year, but he added: “The environment is still severe and complex both at home and abroad, the economy is stable, but still subject to changes and slowdown, and the downward pressure is mounting.”
He said that China must maintain employment.
Exports to the crucial US market have held up so far, but analysts forecast a dimming picture in the months ahead, reinforcing the need for China to rely on its legions of domestic consumers to fuel the economy.
“Talking about the impact of Sino-US trade frictions — it may directly affect imports and exports, but so far the impact is not large,” Mao said, adding that growth began to fall last month.
In another worrying sign, growth in output at factories and workshops fell to a 33-month low of 5.4 percent year-on-year, from 5.9 percent in October.
Growth at foreign-invested enterprises was sluggish.
China’s auto sales have fallen sharply since this summer and analysts expect the nation to register its first annual sales decline in three decades.
“The latest data show an economy that is under pressure on both the external and domestic front, with policy efforts to shore up growth still falling short,” Capital Economics China economist Julian Evans-Pritchard said.
“The data lend support to the market’s view that things will get worse in China before they get better, this despite investment rising,” OANDA Corp head of Asia-Pacific trade Stephen Innes said.
On the positive side, fixed-asset investment, a key economic driver, rose 5.9 percent in the first 11 months of the year, recovering from record lows in the summer.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
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