China's central bank held its one-year and five-year loan prime rates steady for a second straight meeting, even though July retail sales rose just 0.6% and property investment fell 19.2%. It's leaning instead on a 23.9% export surge that owes much to tariff front-loading.
Property's 19.2% collapse dragged China's fixed-asset investment to a 6.7% contraction through July, with private FAI falling at the fastest pace since the May 2020 lockdown trough, per Christophe Barraud. Source
