China’s Economy Suffers Another Setback As Investment Slumps

Economic Activity - China's economic activity experienced a more significant slowdown than anticipated in August, particularly in investment, increasing the likelihood of additional stimulus measures from policymakers to maintain growth towards the official target [1] Industrial Output and Consumption - Industrial output and consumption faced their worst month of the year in August, with factory and mine production growing by only 5.2% year-on-year, marking the smallest increase since August 2024 [2] Retail Sales and Investment - Retail sales rose by 3.4% year-on-year in August, falling short of the expected 3.8% increase and down from 3.7% in July. Fixed-asset investment growth for the first eight months of the year decelerated sharply to 0.5%, the lowest reading for this period since 2020 [3] Bond Yields and Equity Market - The yield on China's 30-year government bonds decreased by two basis points to 2.16%, likely reflecting expectations that the central bank may need to ease monetary policy due to slowing growth. Meanwhile, Chinese equities maintained earlier gains, with the CSI 300 Index up by 0.7% [4]