Despite a sharp slowdown in economic growth and the stock market crash, consumers in China’s commercial capital have proven resilient, according to FT Confidential Research, a research service from the Financial Times. A survey of consumers across the city found they spent an average Rmb4,959 a month over the past 12 months, compared with Rmb1,737 across urban areas nationwide. They increasingly favour a quality meal and foreign goods, while nearly 70 per cent said they travelled abroad during the past 12 months. But cracks are appearing in the Shanghai consumer story.

The arrests or investigations targeting the finance industry in the aftermath of China’s summer market crash have intensified in recent weeks, creating a climate of fear among China’s finance firms and chilling their investment strategies. At least 16 people have been arrested, are being investigated or have been taken away from their job duties to assist authorities, according to statements and announcements compiled by Bloomberg News.

Capital flowed into China last month for the first time since an unexpected currency devaluation in August shook investor confidence in the economy, easing fears over financial stability following an unprecedented bout of outflows, the Financial Times reported. Capital has exited China at a record pace this year as an economic slowdown pushed Chinese gross domestic product growth to its slowest pace in six years.

Cash-strapped China Shanshui Cement has received several demands for repayments from creditors, following a default even as it had started winding up proceedings, it said in a stock exchange filing. The default was on a 2 billion yuan bond which was due on Thursday, about which the company had warned a day before. The company said that China Construction Bank had demanded repayment of a $50 million loan by Thursday failing which it would institute legal proceedings against its subsidiary China Pioneer Cement, which owed the debt.

China’s consumers are gradually picking up the baton from the traditional economic engines of manufacturing and real estate, data released on Wednesday show, as the painful rebalancing process inches ahead, the Financial Times reported. The slowdown of factory activity and construction pushed Chinese gross domestic product growth to its lowest annual pace since 2009 in the third quarter at 6.9 per cent, and the latest data suggest these sectors have not yet bottomed out.

China's factory output and investment weakened in October while retail sales growth edged up, suggesting economic growth has stabilized but has yet to revive despite repeated interest rate cuts and other stimulus, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. The data reported Wednesday reflected the two-speed nature of the economy as communist leaders try to encourage growth based on consumer spending instead of trade, investment and heavy industry. Economic growth decelerated to a six-year low of 6.9 percent in the latest quarter.

During an interview last month at the posh Shangri-La Hotel in Hong Kong, Henry Li stepped aside four times in an hour to take calls. Creditors were frantically trying to connect with the chief financial officer of China Shanshui Cement Group Ltd., and they wanted to know one thing: Was his company about to default? "Honestly speaking, banks are very worried about us, as you can tell from the fact that I’ve received many calls,” said Li, sitting alongside Shanshui Chairman Zhang Bin as they discussed the firm’s predicament with Bloomberg on Oct. 14.

A consortium of investors in debt-laden Chinese developer Kaisa Group Holding led by Farallon Capital has drafted a proposal that would inject $650 million into the company and result in higher recovery for bondholders, documents seen by Reuters showed. Under the proposal, the consortium would inject $150 million into the company with the rest coming from existing shareholders exercising warrants to buy heavily discounted shares. That purchase would result in the consortium owning a 20 percent stake, with existing shareholders getting an additional $5 million in cash on a pro-rata basis.

The Baha Mar resort’s Chinese lender has decided to foreclose on the $3.5 billion resort in the Bahamas and has appointed a receiver to bring the delayed project to completion, roughly six weeks after it was thrown out of bankruptcy protection in the U.S. The move by the Export-Import Bank of China, which received Bahamian court approval to name Deloitte to the receiver role, comes a few weeks after some 2,000 employees in the Bahamas lost their jobs at the partially completed resort at the request of court-appointed liquidators.

China’s top leader sent the strongest signal yet that the government expects the world’s second-largest economy to shift to a slower pace, suggesting Beijing could tolerate growth as low as 6.5%, The Wall Street Journal reported. President Xi Jinping warned that China’s economy faces domestic and global uncertainties, as his government began Tuesday to reveal details of its next five-year plan via China’s official Xinhua News Agency.