Hong Kong
CNN
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China stopped releasing monthly data after the youth unemployment rate soared. Consecutive best record update in the last few months A wider economic recession.
The news sparked an immediate backlash and ridicule on social media, but was announced on Tuesday when the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) regularly releases its monthly economic data. Prior to this, NBS released monthly urban unemployment rates for 16- to 24-year-olds.
NBS spokesman Hu Linghui said it was because the current statistics “needed to be improved.”
The number of students in this age group has increased in recent years, and their main task should be to study rather than to get a job, he said.
“People differ on whether or not we should include students who are looking for a job before graduation. More research is needed,” he added.
Define He added that more research is also needed on the age group of “young job seekers” as young people are spending more years in school.
In the future, NBS will conduct a “thorough investigation” to improve its methodology, Hu said, adding that the data will be made public again once the process is complete. He did not mention a deadline.
The suspension comes after China’s youth unemployment rate hit a record high for consecutive months. From April to June, the unemployment rate among 16- to 24-year-olds reached 20.4%, 20.8% and 21.3% respectively.
The announcement quickly went viral online.
“What they really meant was that the current data is too ugly to look at now,” he said. comment There were over 9,000 upvotes on microblogging site Weibo, and the hashtag for the news got 100 million views.
A record 11.6 million university graduates were looking for jobs this year.They face a bleak outlook as China’s economy loses momentum 2nd quarter onwardswhen Post-pandemic rally Faded.
Tuesday’s figures also showed the world’s second-largest economy will see another month of sluggish growth.
Consumer spending, factory production and fixed-asset investment all slowed further in July from a year earlier, according to NBS.
Retail sales rose 2.5% last month from a year ago, slowing from a record 3.1% in June. It was the weakest consumption growth since December when China lifted restrictions on the pandemic.
Industrial production also fell short of expectations. Compared to June’s 4.4% year-on-year increase, July saw a 3.7% year-on-year increase.
Fixed asset investment increased by 3.4% in July compared to June’s 3.8% increase.
The economy faces the following problems Weak export demand from the world market and Ongoing property crisis.
Analysts at Capital Economics said: “Failures at development firms such as Country Gardens are likely to weigh on the housing market in the near term, pushing the economy into recession unless policy support is strengthened soon. There is a real risk of falling,” he said. Tuesday’s research notes.
US stocks fell on Tuesday as Wall Street worries about the health of China’s economy grew. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 361 points, or 1%. The S&P 500 fell 1.2% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.1%.
Economists say, but policymakers are taking steps to help the economy more and more need to do it.
The People’s Bank of China unexpectedly cut its medium-term lending facility (MLF) by 15 basis points to 2.5% on Tuesday. The 7-day reverse repo rate was also cut by 10 basis points to 1.8% today.
“From a macro perspective, today’s policy decisions are somewhat helpful,” said Robert Carnell, head of research for Asia-Pacific at ING Group.
But they aren’t game changers, he said.
Analysts at Capital Economics expect further rate cuts in the near future. but, Policymakers have so far been slow to deploy meaningful fiscal support, so the cuts are likely too small to revive credit demand, they said.
“Our expectations of a modest, policy-driven recovery in the second half of the year may be overly optimistic unless authorities act sooner and more strongly,” he added.
On Sunday, the Chinese Cabinet 24 guidelines issued To attract foreign investment and address some challenges The most annoying issue for investors.
The measures include improving tax incentives for foreign companies, making it easier for foreigners to obtain visas, and relaxing rules on transferring data abroad.