Chinese growth is falling fast

China has released its combined Q1 GDP and March data today and, again, it’s weakened. GDP fell sharply to 1.4% for the quarter and 7.4% for the year versus 7.3% expected:

For March data, industrial production fell to 8.8% versus 9% expected:

Fixed asset investment was bashed lower to 17.6% versus 18% expected:

Finally, chalk one up for rebalancing with retail sales coming in at 12.1%, as expected.

If you annualise that quarterly figure you get 5.6%! The upshot is that China needs some non-stimulus quickly to prevent growth falling well below 7%. The dollar popped 40 pips, presumably on that expectation.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.