China Economic Growth

Today's Best of BS Opinion looks at India's evolving trade strategy, rising tensions with Bangladesh, lessons from China's manufacturing boom, food loss challenges, and the impact of digital platforms

An unambitious elite spoiled by finance - plus a working class held back by inadequate education and inequities of caste and gender - are stymying the emergence of a global middle class in India

Today's opinion pieces offer a sharp mix of macro and culture: China's demand shortfall, Prada's Kolhapuri move, the rupee's policy trilemma, why RBI needs better data, and a candid chess memoir.

China's global goods surplus has surged past $1 trillion, driven by booming auto and battery exports, and a competitive edge from weak domestic demand and currency dynamics

The official manufacturing purchasing managers' index was 49.2, remaining below the 50 mark that separates growth and contraction for an eighth month

Top government and Communist Party officials regularly state that they're committed to lifting domestic spending - something the US and other major trading partners have also long demanded

To meet official lending targets, many Chinese banks are resorting to instant loan tactics where clients take out loans briefly and repay them soon after, masking low credit demand

China is using American pressure as a catalyst to accelerate domestic innovation, by pumping money into its local firms

China's economic growth slowed to its weakest in a year in the third quarter, and the youth unemployment rate remained elevated despite a dip in September

China's exports contracted in October, hit by a 25% drop in shipments to the United States, the government reported Friday. Persisting trade tensions with Washington may get a respite in the final quarter of the year after President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed last week to de-escalate the trade war between the two largest economies. But trade friction still appears to be casting a pall on demand elsewhere. Customs data show a 1.1% drop in China's global exports in October compared to a year earlier, the weakest since February, following an 8.3% increase in September. Imports rose 1% last month from the year before, compared with 7.4% growth in September. China's shipments to the US have already fallen by double-digits for seven consecutive months, while it has diversified its export markets to regions such as Southeast Asia and Africa. The October decline also was affected by a high base for the same month in 2024, when exports growth soared more than 12.6%,

On the price side, the divergence of rising raw material prices and falling finished goods prices remains, keeping corporate profit margins under pressure

China's ageing crisis and overburdened hospitals have given rise to a new service industry of paid companions who assist elderly patients through daunting medical routines

A 21.6 per cent increase in industrial profits last month, the fastest pace since November 2023, followed a 20.4 per cent jump in August, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed

China's economy expanded at the slowest annual pace in a year in July- September, growing 4.8 per cent, weighed down by trade tensions with the United States and slack domestic demand. The July-September data was the weakest pace of growth since the third quarter of 2024, and compares with a 5.2 per cent pace of growth in the previous quarter, the government said in a report Monday. In January-September, the world's second largest economy grew at a 5.2 per cent annual pace. Despite US President Donald Trump's higher tariffs on imports from China, the country's exports have remained relatively strong as companies shifted their sales to other world markets. Tensions between Beijing and Washington remain elevated, and it's unclear if Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will go ahead with a proposed meeting during a regional summit at the end of this month. Xi and other ruling Communist Party members are convening one of China's most important political meetings for the year on Monday,

As trade tensions escalate with the US, weakness in investment, industrial output and retail sales is undermining momentum from record sales abroad

The Central Committee of the Communist Party will hold a four-day meeting, known as its Fourth Plenum, starting Monday to review main themes of the 15th five-year plan

The official manufacturing purchasing managers' index was 49.8, versus 49.4 in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said

Countries locked in tariff talks with Trump are hesitant to spark another trade war with China, giving Beijing relief from US levies once expected to slash its annual growth rate

So far, retail investors haven't driven the rally - local institutions and foreign inflows have, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc

A record 12.2 million university students graduated this summer, with many of them joining a job market that was strained by deflationary pressures and external uncertainties