China

The World Trade Organization said on Wednesday that it was unable to get a clear picture of China's financial support for key industrial sectors, such as electric vehicles or aluminium and steel production due to an "overall lack of transparency," Reuters reported. The WTO noted that the world's second-largest economy gave financial support and other incentives to industries over the 2021-2024 review period but said that Beijing did not provide enough information for the WTO to have a clear picture of the programmes.

After Beijing ordered Chinese cities to buy newly-completed apartments and turn them into affordable housing, the first steps they took were to unveil plans to broaden eligibility for subsidies and fix other economic headaches in the process, Reuters reported. Chinese leaders issued the directive in May, aiming to alleviate a protracted property crisis, which has led to bloated inventories of unsold apartments that have crippled developers' cash flows and weighed heavily on home prices, consumer confidence and economic activity.

China's economy grew much slower than expected in the second quarter as a protracted property downturn and job insecurity knocked the wind out of a fragile recovery, keeping alive expectations Beijing will need to unleash even more stimulus, Reuters reported. The world's second-largest economy grew 4.7% in April-June, official data showed, its slowest since the first quarter of 2023. It also slowed from the previous quarter's 5.3% expansion.

For years, Liuzhou and scores of other Chinese cities together amassed trillions of dollars in off-the-books debt for economic development projects. The opaque financing was the yeast that helped China rise to the envy of the world. Today, overgrown construction sites, sparsely used highways and abandoned tourist attractions make much of that debt-fueled growth look illusory and suggests China’s future is far from assured, the Wall Street Journal reported.

China’s credit growth hit a fresh record low in June, highlighting subdued borrowing demand and prompting a central bank-backed publication to downplay concerns about weakness in the economy, Bloomberg News reported. The stock of aggregate financing — a broad measure of credit — expanded 8.1% from a year ago, the slowest on record in data going back to 2017, official figures released on Friday show. The net increase in aggregate financing was 3.3 trillion yuan ($455 billion), according to Bloomberg calculations based on the data, below the 3.4 trillion yuan forecast in a Bloomberg survey.

China's exports grew at their fastest in fifteen months in June, suggesting manufacturers are front-loading orders ahead of tariffs expected from a growing number of trade partners, while imports unexpectedly shrank amid weak domestic demand, Reuters reported. The mixed trade data keeps alive calls for further government stimulus as the $18.6 trillion economy struggles to get back on its feet. Analysts warn that the jury is still out on whether strong export sales in recent months can be sustained given major trade partners are becoming more protective.

Just 19 of China’s 137 current electric car brands will be profitable by the end of the decade, leaving the rest to exit the industry, consolidate or battle for a minor market share, according to consultancy Alixpartners, Bloomberg News reported. A price war that has been running for almost two years has pressured margins at some Chinese EV makers, and could continue as dominate players like BYD Co. and Tesla Inc. seek to consolidate their dominant positions.

A company linked to the Chinese businessman who led the buyout of AC Milan in 2017 is being sued over unpaid debts by a group of investment firms, Bloomberg News reported. Five claims have been filed against British Virgin Islands-based Rossoneri Advance Co. Ltd. involving a combined $187 million in debt due and owed, according to court documents dated July 4. The five plaintiffs are suing for debt, damages, accrued interest and other claims.

China's Ministry of Finance is conducting more rigorous checks of work done by the Big Four auditing firms for local companies, three people with knowledge of the matter said, amid concerns auditors are not doing enough to uncover corporate wrongdoing, Reuters reported. The tighter scrutiny, which has not been previously reported, is mainly focused on Deloitte, EY, PwC, KPMG and their audits of some financial firms as well as highly leveraged companies, said the people.

China’s consumer inflation remained tepid last month while factory-gate prices continued to fall, pointing to persistently lackluster demand despite Beijing’s efforts to juice up consumption, the Wall Street Journal reported. The country’s consumer-price index rose for a fifth consecutive month in June, edging up 0.2% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. That missed the 0.4% rise expected by economists in a Wall Street Journal poll and compared with May’s 0.3% increase.