Despite the rebound in US stocks overnight, Asian markets are mixed. Upside of recovery was capped by poor data from China. It’s now rather apparent that the rebound in March was just temporary due to seasonal reasons. The slowdown in China is in place and could even worsen further as trade war with US drags on.
China industrial production growth slowed to 5.4% yoy in April, missed expectation of 6.5% yoy. That’s also sharp deterioration from 4-year high of 8.5% yoy in March. Fixed-asset investment growth slowed to 6.1% ytd yoy, down from 6.3% and missed expectation of 6.4%.
More seriously, retail sales growth slowed to 7.2% yoy, down from 8.7% yoy and missed expectation of 7.2% yoy. That’s also the lowest growth since May 2003. That dents hope of shifting the burden of the economy from exports to domestic demand growth. Unemployment rate, though, dropped to 5.2%.
