纽约时报中文网 - 英文原版-英Chinas Slumping Economy What the Latest Numbers Are Signaling
September 15, 2023 4 min 813 words
这篇《纽约时报》中文网的报道针对中国经济的下滑趋势进行了深入分析，呈现了最新数据的重要信号。中国作为全球经济的重要一环，其经济健康对全球产业链和市场都有着深远的影响。 首先，这篇报道强调了数据的重要性，因为经济数据是决策者和投资者评估中国经济状况的关键指标。随着数据显示出下降趋势，我们需要审慎对待这一问题。 其次，报道提到了中国政府的政策反应。中国政府采取的经济政策将在未来决定着中国的经济走向，因此，政策的调整和创新至关重要。这需要更多的深思熟虑和前瞻性的政策制定。 最后，文章没有回避潜在的风险，这也是必要的。中国经济的下滑可能会对全球经济产生连锁影响，这需要国际社会密切关注和合作。 综而言之，这篇报道为我们提供了关于中国经济下滑的重要见解，强调了数据、政策和风险的关键因素。在当前的全球经济环境下，这些信息对各方都具有重要意义。
China’s trains, planes, stores and beaches were a little fuller last month than a year earlier, and the pace of activity picked up at factories, particularly those making mobile phones and semiconductors.
A batch of numbers released on Friday by China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed a modest improvement in the country’s overall retail sales and industrial production during August. A series of small steps taken by the government over the summer, including two rounds of interest rate cuts, seems to be yielding a slightly better-than-expected improvement in the country’s economy.
“The national economy has accelerated its recovery, production and supply have increased steadily, market demand has gradually improved,” Fu Linghui, China’s director of national economic statistics, said at a news conference.
But many foreign economists were more guarded.
“Some may be of the view that China’s economy has already bottomed out, but we remain cautious,” said a research note from Nomura, a Japanese bank.
Real estate remains a persistent risk.
The broad troubles of China’s real estate sector continue to cast a long shadow over the country’s economic prospects. Property investment in August plummeted nearly a fifth from a year earlier, an even steeper decline than in July.
Construction sites around China appear visibly less busy, although activity has not stopped entirely and tower cranes still dot the skylines.
Construction of apartment towers has faltered because of falling apartment prices.
Based on data released on Friday for prices of new apartments in 70 large and medium-size cities across China, Goldman Sachs calculated that prices fell in August at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.9 percent, compared with 2.6 percent in July.
The statistics for new apartments considerably understate the speed and extent of price declines, however, as local governments have put heavy pressure on developers not to cut prices.
Prices of existing homes in 100 cities across China fell an average of 14 percent by early August from their peak two years earlier, according to the Beike Research Institute, a Tianjin research firm. Rents have fallen 5 percent.
Construction and related activities, including public works projects, make up at least a quarter of the Chinese economy. The government has tried to offset the plunge in apartment construction by demanding that already deeply indebted local and provincial governments undertake a debt-fueled wave of large projects, including new subways, municipal water systems, highways, public parks, high-speed rail lines and other infrastructure.
Banks are being squeezed.
Loans that China’s banks have made to property developers, dozens of which have defaulted on debt payments, are in trouble. So are loans to local governments and their financial affiliates involved in real estate. Banks are allowed to demand immediate repayment if work on a construction project has stopped, but they are reluctant to do so. Demand for new real estate loans remains weak.
The central bank, the People’s Bank of China, announced on Thursday that it was freeing banks to set aside smaller reserves and start extending more credit. The move was widely seen as intended to accommodate a large batch of bonds that local and provincial governments will issue to pay for their infrastructure projects.
Investment in fixed assets was held back by property woes.
Overall investment in what are known as fixed assets was up 3.2 percent for the first eight months of 2023 compared with a year earlier — infrastructure spending plus some manufacturing investment offset the property nosedive. The pace through August was a slowdown from 3.4 percent the prior month.
The production of semiconductors rose 21.1 percent in August from a year earlier. The government has more heavily subsidized chip-making as the United States has restricted the export to China of a few of the highest-speed computer chips and of the gear to manufacture them.
The value of China’s industrial production, a proxy for the activity of factories, rose 4.5 percent in August from a year earlier after it was adjusted for considerable deflation in wholesale prices for factory goods over the past year. The increase was 3.7 percent in July.
Consumers are changing how they spend.
Retail sales in August were up 4.6 percent from a year earlier, as rising energy prices most likely pushed up retail sales, Nomura said.
A main reason retail sales rebounded was that a year ago, people in China were still living under stringent “zero Covid” measures that restricted their activity.
Beer and wine production dropped from a year earlier, while output rose for bottled water, carried by many Chinese people during outdoor activities, and production of fruit and vegetable juices climbed sharply.