Explainer | How much worse can China's economic slowdown get?
The Hindu
China only has one other source of demand to tinker with: household consumption.
China's economic activity data for July, including retail sales, industrial output and investment failed to match expectations, fuelling concern over a deeper, longer-lasting slowdown in growth.
Activity data has been missing forecasts since the beginning of the second quarter, with the weakness raising worries that China's economy is coming closer to a crunch point.
It would not be for the first time.
Alarm bells over growth rang during the global financial crisis in 2008-09 and during a capital outflow scare in 2015. China came out of those with a shock boost to infrastructure investment and by encouraging property market speculation, among other measures.
But infrastructure upgrades have created too much debt, and the property bubble has already burst, posing risks to financial stability.
Given China's debt-fuelled investment in infrastructure and property has peaked, and as exports are slowing in line with the global economy, China only has one other source of demand to tinker with: household consumption.
In that sense, this slowdown is different.