It is not being a good summer for China. First, because the shocks of the extreme weather do not let up: an unprecedented heat wave was accompanied by a strong typhoon that caused the biggest floods in memory in the capital, Beijing. On a political level, a foreign minister and senior military commanders have fallen into a purge for which no one has given an explanation. New restrictions continue to come from the United States to stop the national development of the most advanced semiconductors. And the symptoms of the economy begin to worry many analysts.
One day the news is slowing growth in the second quarter. On the other, that the Asian giant has entered deflation after consumer prices fell for the first time since 2021. Then data comes out on weak demand for imports and exports. Or about the stock market collapse of one of the large real estate developers, unable, like its competitors, to meet its debt obligations and accentuating the liquidity crisis in the sector. And let’s not forget the record high rate of youth unemployment.
The latter, by the way, has not appeared in the report -from July- published this Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The previous month reached 21.3% unemployment among young people between 16 and 24 years of age. That percentage had never been reached. The reason why unemployment by age has not been broken down for the first time since 2018? According to the NBS, it is due to economic changes and a reassessment of the methodology. “The economy and society are constantly developing and changing. Statistical work needs continuous improvement,” he argued at a press conference in Beijing. Fu Linghuispokesperson for the office.
But the decision of hide these figures by NBS was criticized on Chinese social networks, especially on Weibo, the Twitter-like application, where a hashtag related that received more than 10 million views. “If you close your eyes, then it doesn’t exist,” wrote one user.
These are the data that have been published: retail sales increased by 2.5% in July compared to the previous year and industrial production rose by 3.7%. Both metrics missed expectations and came in below June’s year-over-year figures. Investment in fixed assets increased by 3.4% during the first seven months of the year, below the forecast 3.8%.