StatsGuru: Taking stock of the numbers behind the Chinese slowdown

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Troubles spread across world markets after the Chinese devalued their currency sharply, after a long period in which it had gently appreciated or stayed flat, as Table 1 shows. Table 2 shows the Shanghai market crashed. The Sensex also lost value. But other world markets, after initial jitters, recovered - and some, like New York and Frankfurt, actually gained by close of day on Friday. A similar pattern is seen with some currencies, in Table 3. It is worth noting that, while Shanghai is down sharply over the past week and month, Table 4 reveals it is still up massively when looked at from a yearlong or two-year perspective. As Table 5 explains, much of Shanghai's recent ramp-up and decline can be explained by the rise and fall of margin debt.

The Shanghai crash, some argue, is a symptom of China's underlying economic problems. Growth is not as high as official indicators, they argue. Tables 6 and 7 show China's electricity production and its car sales, respectively. Both appear highly seasonal, but till recently seem to exhibit an upward trend. The real estate index, in Table 8, however, is clearly trending downwards. A construction and manufacturing slowdown in China has pushed world commodities even lower, as shown in Table 9.