News Snapshot:
(Bloomberg) -- China’s consumer spending took a dive in March as Covid lockdowns confined millions of people to their homes and drove up joblessness to the highest level since the early part of the pandemic. While official data showed an acceleration in gross domestic product growth in the first quarter to 4.8%, faster than economists had predicted, activity data for last month showed a notable slump in spending. Retail sales contracted 3.5% from a year ago, the first decline since July 2020 and worse than economists had projected. Industrial output rose 5%, above the 4% median forecast but slower than...
