Down she goes and where it stops nobody knows. Chinese August data is out. It is OK at the headline level but downright disastrous at the commodities level.
Headline data all missed expectations. Year to date fixed asset investment was OK at 8.9%, industrial production good at 13.1% and retail sales at 19%. But when we look at it in year on year terms industrial production falls to 5.3% and retail sales to just 2.5%:
It’s when we dig into the data that things fall apart. We already know that Chinese new home price gains have almost stalled out. Floor area starts are now following in train, down 17% year on year:
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