China’s economic misery threatens global recovery from COVID-19, raising spectre of financial market chaos

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Open this photo in gallery: Workers check products' prices at a supermarket in Beijing on Aug. 13.PEDRO PARDO/AFP/Getty Images The world’s second-largest economy is sputtering out, with China facing trials and tribulations that include record youth unemployment and consumer price deflation, raising the spectre of prolonged economic misery that could rip through financial markets. Already grappling with 21-per-cent joblessness among 16-to-24-year-olds and its weakest GDP growth in decades – “around 5 per cent,” according to the government – China’s hoped-for economic rebound from rigid COVID-19 lockdowns is showing signs of severe strain. In the past week China reported that new...