China services activity weakens, eurozone economy barely expands triggering stagflation concerns
China weakened last month, underscoring the precarious nature of the nation’s recovery.
Separate data showed the euro-area economy barely expanded in the second quarter, which may feed policymakers’ worries about stagflation taking hold. Meantime, South Africa’s economy grew by more than expected in the period, driven by finance and manufacturing.
Here are some of the charts that appeared on Bloomberg this week on the latest developments in the global economy:
Asia
A private survey of China’s services sector showed activity expanded at the slowest rate this year in August, as the economy’s darkened outlook and ongoing property turmoil hold people back from spending.China’s housing crisis has engulfed the country’s private developers, producing record waves of defaults and leaving a shrinking group of survivors. Out of the nation’s top 50 private-sector developers by dollar bond issuance, 34 have already suffered delinquencies on offshore debt, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.
Japan’s households cut back spending in July as persistent inflation continued to erode purchasing power, adding pressure on the government to ramp up aid when it unveils a fresh batch of economic measures in coming weeks.
Europe
Britain’s residential property market slump deepened, with figures from two of the top mortgage lenders indicating home prices falling at the fastest pace since 2009 and warnings of worse to come.
The euro-area economy barely grew in the second quarter as new data showing a dismal performance for exports forced a downward revision in overall growth numbers for the region. The report provides the European Central Bank with harder evidence of the weakness taking hold in the euro-zone economy, a week before policymakers
