(Bloomberg) -- China’s economy lost steam in April after a rebound in March, even before President Donald Trump’s latest tariff increase arrived to further darken the outlook.
- Industrial output rose 5.4% from a year earlier, versus a median estimate of 6.5%. Retail sales growth slowed to 7.2%, compared to the 8.6% projection. Fixed-asset investment slowed to 6.1% in the first four months, versus a forecast 6.4%.
Key Insights
- State investment accelerated throughout the first four months, while private investment growth continued to slow
- Manufacturing investment slowed, rising 2.5% in the first four months
- Property investment in the first four months quickened by 2.4 percentage points to 11.9% compared with last year
- “We believe the State Council will launch more measures to shore up the market sentiment,” said Raymond Yeung, chief China economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Hong Kong. “More tax cuts and consumer subsidies are in the pipeline.”
- Instead of paring back stimulus as the April Politburo meeting suggested, policy makers may again step on the gas as the nation’s 2020 growth goal is threatened
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- The survey-based unemployment stood at 5%, versus 5.2% the previous month
(Updates with chart, comment from ANZ and investment data.)