China: Momentum remains robust - Westpac

Elliot Clarke, Research Analyst at Westpac, notes that China’s PMIs again showed that current momentum remains robust, but two negative trends bear close monitoring.

Key Quotes

“These are abating external demand and continued disappointing employment growth. The deterioration to date is largely as we anticipated and is thus consistent with our sub-consensus view for GDP growth (6.3% and 6.1% in 2018 and 2019). But a further loss of momentum is a risk, particularly given authorities remain focused on the long-term ‘quality’ of growth and are therefore unlikely to spur current momentum with active policy easing as they have in the past.”