China’s economy seems to have peaked for the year. Is a rapid slowdown on the cards?

News Snapshot:

As the first economy to emerge from the Covid-19 crisis, China seems to have moved beyond the initial snap-back phase. However, there are signs that the early momentum could be fading. The recent weakness is mainly concentrated on the domestic demand side. Some major activity indicators in May, including industrial production, fixed-asset investment and retail sales, were all surprisingly disappointing. Growth of both infrastructure and property investment softened last month, probably reflecting the impact of tighter policies on implicit local government debt and the property sector. At the same time, China’s consumption recovery seems to be fizzling out. After a...