China

China’s economy improved slightly in May, offering hints of a recovery that is likely to remain fragile under the continuing threat of pandemic-related lockdowns, the Wall Street Journal reported. Official data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday showed an uptick in factory production and a smaller decline in retail sales in the world’s second-largest economy last month. Industrial production edged up 0.7% in May from a year earlier, reversing an almost 3% contraction in April, a sign that factories had resumed operations as Covid-19 curbs eased.

China's cabinet unveiled some steps on Monday to improve the allocation of resources among local governments to help ease their growing fiscal strains and debt risks, amid efforts to support the slowing economy, Reuters reported. In a document on fiscal reform below the provincial level, the State Council laid out steps to divide fiscal revenues and spending obligations among local governments, and transfer payments allocations. China has in recent years taken measures to shore up finances of debt-laden local governments, partly via increased transfer payments from the central government.

New bank lending in China jumped far more than expected in May and broader credit growth also quickened, as policymakers try to pull the world's second-largest economy out of a sharp, COVID-induced slump, Reuters reported. Chinese banks extended 1.89 trillion yuan ($282.62 billion) in new yuan loans in May, nearly tripling April's tally and handily beating expectations, data released by the People's Bank of China on Friday.

China's exports grew at a double-digit pace in May, shattering expectations in an encouraging sign for the world's second biggest economy, as factories restarted and logistics snags eased after authorities relaxed some COVID curbs in Shanghai, Reuters reported. Imports also expanded for the first time in three months, providing welcome relief to Chinese policy makers as they try to chart an economic path out of the supply-side shock that has rocked global trade and financial markets in recent months.

China's sputtering economy has a lot riding on its consumers, who are just now emerging from lockdowns in Shanghai and other big cities. But those hopes are running up against the likes of Wu Lei, a soccer coach in Beijing who has put off buying a new mobile phone, Bloomberg News reported. "I've lost the lion's share of my income since Beijing called a stop to after-school sports clubs in April," said Wu, a 37-year-old with two daughters. The five-week-long near-shutdown of the Chinese capital under China's stringent COVID-19 measures was eased on Monday.

Sri Lanka will need $5 billion over the next six months to ensure basic living standards, and is renegotiating the terms of a yuan-denominated swap worth $1.5 billion with China so as to fund essential imports, the prime minister said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The island nation's worst economic crisis in seven decades led to a shortage of foreign exchange that stalled imports of essential items such as fuel, medicine and fertiliser, provoking devaluation, street protests and a change of government.

Beijing residents eagerly indulged in a privilege that they had not enjoyed in weeks: dining inside a restaurant, the New York Times reported. The Chinese capital relaxed pandemic rules at midnight on Monday, including a ban on dining in, after a partial lockdown that lasted more than a month. Although the closures were not as strict as in Shanghai, the authorities in Beijing had suspended some public transportation, forced some people to quarantine, and enforced work-from-home in much of the city.

The growing caution among young buyers in China's battered property market, which accounts for a quarter of gross domestic product, presents a major challenge for policymakers in Beijing now scrambling to revive housing activity, Reuters reported. The weakness in the property sector, already buckling under huge debts, adds to the major disruptions caused by China's zero-COVID policy, which have upended factory and retail activity this year and cast a cloud over the global economy with international businesses increasingly worried about the outlook.

Chinese travel and spending has slowly started to improve as the country lifts some of its strictest coronavirus curbs, though the government’s commitment to Covid Zero has made a strong recovery elusive. Spending data from the three-day holiday weekend to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival showed a slump in domestic tourism revenue of 12.2% from a year ago -- a much narrower drop than the 43% plunge recorded a month ago over the national Labor Day holiday.

China's services activity contracted for a third straight month in May, pointing to a slow recovery ahead despite the easing of some COVID lockdowns in Shanghai and neighbouring cities, a private business survey showed on Monday, Reuters reported. The Caixin services purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to 41.4 in May from 36.2 in April, edging up slightly as authorities began to roll back some of the strict restrictions that have paralysed the financial city of Shanghai and roiled global supply chains.