Weak China data raises slowdown concerns as Greece opens its doors to its creditors for crunch talks on reforms 8.18am GMT Fears over a sharper-than-expected slowdown in China were raised overnight following a slew of weak data from the national statistics bureau. Industrial output grew 6.8% over the first two months of the year, compared with the same period last year, disappointing expectations of a 7.8% increase and the weakest rate of growth since late 2008. Today’s activity data have put pay to our expectation that GDP growth would strengthened slightly in Q1, with a slowdown now looking more likely.Overall, the weakness in today’s figures is surprising given that a sharp slowdown in Q1 of last year will have provided a flattering base for comparison.Whoaa China economy: feb and it's all fall down. Coming here in 3 charts. First indust prod down to 6.8% back to 2009 pic.twitter.com/8rLpbGhX01Next up China fixed asset investment down to 13.9pct agst expectations of 15%, and continuing downtrend shown here pic.twitter.com/t5QOT0DqFpFinally China retail sales also slowing down with little let up pic.twitter.com/c63EjCYSWq 7.58am GMT Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.Data today from China confirms message from its President last week that its economy is slowing, weakest start to year since 2009. Continue reading...
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