China: Slowdown in the activity data continues in May - ING

According to Iris Pang, economist at ING, if the slowdown in the activity data continues in May and June, China's GDP growth could fall below 6.0% YoY in 2Q19.

Key Quotes

“Industrial production and retail sales slowed for different reasons

• Fixed asset investments grew 6.1% year-on-year, year-to-date in April from 6.3% in March. This was probably hit by slower progress in completing investments in planned infrastructure projects and slow manufacturing investment as a result of the trade war.
• Industrial production slowed sharply to 5.4% YoY from 8.5% YoY. The slowdown is partly a result of the slower execution of infrastructure projects and partly the continuous disruption of ride-hailing apps on the production of automobiles.
• Retail sales growth dropped to 7.2% YoY from 8.7% YoY. The slower growth is broad-based. This is worrying as April was a month when China's stock market rose amid good progress in trade talks, so consumer sentiment should have been better.”