China is in trouble, too. Gordon Chang reports:
China’s economy faltered in June, showing definite signs of contraction. The downturn last month almost certainly means Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics overstated growth when it announced on Friday that the country’s economy expanded 7.6% in Q2 from the same quarter last year.
NBS also said June retail sales were up 13.7% and industrial production for the month increased 9.5%. Fixed asset investment, excluding rural households, improved in June as well. It jumped 20.4% in the first half, reflecting an improvement from the 20.1% increase for the first five months.
These figures compare favorably to the results from the other major economies, of course. Yet there remains one problem: Beijing’s statistics are not generally consistent with other official numbers and independent survey results for June.
Party bosses are told what they want to hear, which they then repeat to the masses. Remember that when you read the July employment figures in about three weeks from now.
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