China’s economy shows signs of weakness as investment slumps to new lows

China’s latest economic data reads like a report card where the student aced one subject and bombed everything else. Industrial output beat expectations in August, growing 5.2% year-on-year. But investment, consumption, and credit all missed the mark, and some by a wide margin. The National Bureau of Statistics released figures on September 15 showing urban fixed-asset investment fell 7.2% year-on-year for the January-August period. That’s a deterioration from the 6.7% decline reported through July, meaning the bleeding is accelerating rather than stabilizing. The demand problem keeps getting worse Retail sales grew just 0.4% year-on-year in August. That’s down from an already anemic 0.6% in July, and it missed economist expectations of roughly 0.8% growth. The property sector remains the deepest wound. Property development investment cratered 19.9% year-on-year during the January-August period. Infrastructure investment declined 4.0% over the same stretch. The urban survey-based unemployment rate ticked up to 5.3% in August from 5.2% in July. Credit markets are sending distress signals New yuan-denominated bank loans totaled just 60 billion yuan, roughly $8.95 billion, in August. ...