China cuts key rates as industrial output, retail sales growth miss forecasts

BEIJING, Aug 15 (Reuters) – China’s July industrial output and retail sales growth slowed and undershot forecasts, adding to a raft of recent weak data, suggesting policymakers may need to step up support measures to shore up a faltering economy. Less than an hour before the data release, China’s central bank did just that as it unexpectedly cut key policy rates for the second time in three months, underlining the rapid loss of the post-COVID economic rebound. Industrial output grew 3.7% from a year earlier, slowing from the 4.4% pace seen in June, data released by the National Bureau of…