China's economy showed across-the-board weakness in July, marking a sluggish start to the second half of the year. Industrial output, retail sales, consumption, and investment all performed worse than forecast, suggesting that growth may have slipped further below the government's annual target.
These figures follow one of the country's lowest quarterly growth readings on record for the three months ending in June. Economic activity cooled as surging exports, fueled by the AI boom, failed to offset continuing weakness in domestic demand. The data reinforces concerns regarding the health of the world's second-largest economy as it grapples with a deepening supply-demand imbalance.
The ongoing slowdown has renewed pressure on Beijing and policymakers to intervene with measures to support growth. In response to the data, Premier Li Qiang has called on officials to ramp up supportive measures to address the economic decline.