Retail sales in China has slowed down to 8.1 percent in December, the lowest it has been in 15 years. It has also been compounded by the slowing of industrial production growth to about 5.4 percent in November, the lowest in 10 years as China struggled to cope with the effects of the Trump administration's trade policy, according to SCMP.
The slowdown reflected on other areas, despite record sales being tabulated during Singles' Day. Purchases in areas such as car sales fell 16.1 percent year on year, a fact confirmed by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Industrial production also fell by around 5.4 percent in November in comparison with last year, while it also failed to reciprocate earlier success as seen during October's 5.9 percent gain.
The only bright spots in China's economy had been fixed-asset investments, which maintained a growth of 5.9 percent. Property investment rose as well last month, enough for a 9.7 percent rise in rating. The investment in real estate focused mainly on the residential sector, but growth had also been strong in the commercial and office space sectors, Money Control reported.
The rise in property investments warmed up, after posting a 7.7 percent rating in October, as gleaned from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data. This was better than 2003's slow pace. It was also another bright spot after industrial output posted slow growth over three years, which was recorded in November.
The positives were fuelled by activity in construction starts. These starts, as measured by floor area, was worth 21.7 percent in comparison to a year earlier. It was also up 14.7 percent in October by calculations from Reuters. Nie Wen, an Hwabao Trust economist based in Shanghai, pointed out that developers must have raced to take advantage of new construction and gain presales profits before costly financing pressure hit them.
While the property sector maintained a slew of positivity, analysts have more bad news; China is in for a rough time early next year when growth is expected to feel the burn of Trump's trade tariffs. The government is looking ahead, with a planned Central Economic Work Conference scheduled for next Tuesday. One of the major goals is to create a set of economic policy priorities for 2019.
While the specification of the meeting has not been verified, chief among speculations is that it is being done to create a higher budget to offset the impending slowdown.
