Retail sales grew 3.7% on year in July, the least this year, down from 4.8% in the previous month. Expansion in fixed-asset investment in the first seven months of the year decelerated to 1.6%, as a contraction in the real estate sector deepened. The surveyed urban unemployment rate worsened more than expected to 5.2%.
China’s economy slowed across the board in July with factory activity and retail sales disappointing, suggesting Donald Trump’s trade war is starting to weigh on the world’s No. 2 economy.
Production at Chinese factories and mines rose at the slowest rate since November and expanded 5.7% last month from a year earlier, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday, compared with June’s gain of 6.8%. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey was for an increase of 6%.
