Tausi Insider

People carry bags as they visit the Wangfujing shopping street in Beijing, on Nov. 14. Ng Han Guan/The Associated Press China’s economy suffered a broad slowdown in October as factory output grew more slowly than expected and retail sales fell for the first time in five months, underscoring faltering demand at home and abroad. The world’s second-largest economy is facing a series of headwinds including protracted COVID-19 curbs, global recession risks and a property downturn. In a sign of persistent weakness in sector, data on Tuesday also showed property investment falling at its fastest pace since early 2020 in October. The downbeat data poses a challenge for Chinese policy-makers as they steer the $17-trillion dollar economy through choppy waters, following recent moves to ease some COVID curbs and give financial support to the struggling property sector. “October activity growth broadly slowed and missed market expectations, pointing to a weak start to Q4 as a worsening COVID sit...

Employees work on the production line at a Beijing Benz Automotive Co factory, in Beijing. FLORENCE LO/Reuters China’s economy lost more steam in November as factory output slowed and retail sales extended declines, both missing forecasts and clocking their worst readings in six months, hobbled by surging COVID-19 cases and widespread virus curbs. The data suggested a further deterioration in economic conditions as lockdowns in many cities, a property-sector crunch and weakening global demand pointed to a bumpy road ahead even as Beijing ditched some of the world’s toughest anti-virus restrictions following widespread and rare public protests. Industrial output rose 2.2 per cent in November from a year earlier, missing expectations for a 3.6 per cent gain in a Reuters poll and slowing significantly from the 5.0 per cent growth seen in October, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Thursday. It marked the slowest growth since May, partly due to disruptions in key manu...