China released a confusing set of economic data on Friday, comprising numbers that many argued didn’t add up. The economy only recorded a mild slowdown to 7.6% in the second quarter from 8.1% in the first, even though industrial production, an important contributor to gross domestic product, remained weak.
Electricity consumption, which was reportedly tipped by premier-in-waiting Li Keqiang as a more reliable figure than GDP, was flat, while car production decelerated in June. Modest growth was recorded in the production of steel and cement, which have long suffered from overcapacity.
However puzzling they may be, the numbers reveal what kind of economic slowdown the Chinese...
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