
China’s housing slowdown showed little sign of improvement in the three months to June. Its output contracting for the fourth straight quarter and clouding growth prospects for the rest of the year.
Output in the real estate industry, a key economic contributor, contracted 7% in the second quarter from a year earlier. Found in the National Bureau of Statistics report on Saturday. It remained the biggest drag on the world’s second-largest economy among all sectors. It performed worse than in the first quarter of 2022 when it declined by 2%, the report showed.
New tensions have recently emerged in the sector. Households in dozens of cities have stopped paying mortgages. Because property developers have not completed the construction of their homes. State media quoted analysts as saying it could damage the stability of the financial system if homebuyers in more places follow suit.
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In June, home sales fell 23.4% from a year earlier and real estate investment fell 9.4%, according to official figures released Friday.
China’s economy grew 0.4% in the second quarter. The second quarter missed economists’ forecasts for a 1.2% expansion and reached the slowest pace. That is since the country was first hit by the coronavirus outbreak two years ago, the data showed.
Hotels and restaurants, one of the hardest-hit industries, saw their production fall by 5.3% last quarter. That makes it the second worst performing sector. That’s compared to a 0.3% drop in the previous three-month period. Covid lockdowns and the suspension of dining services in several major cities have dealt a severe blow. while fears of becoming infected also discouraged consumers.
The transport, warehousing, and postal industry decreased by 3.5% compared to the same period in 2021. Production in industrial enterprises increased by 0.4%.
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