China’s Economy Shows Sharp Slowdown: Evening Briefing Asia

China’s retail sales and factory output grew last month by the least this year, deepening concern over the health of the world’s second-largest economy.

Retail sales rose 3.4% from a year earlier, while production at factories expanded 5.2%, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the smallest gain since August 2024.

Other figures underscored a deteriorating outlook. Fixed-asset investment in the first eight months of the year grew just 0.5%, the worst reading for the period on record except for the pandemic year of 2020. Home prices fell at a faster pace last month, with new-home sales in Beijing sliding 19% ...