China July Industrial production +3.7% y/y (expected 4.5%) & Retail sales +2.5% (4.8%)

<p>China industrial production and retail sales data for July 2023. Big misses for both.</p><p>We would normally get the youth unemployment rate – that's been left off the data release entirely. Overall u/e rate has been released, comes in at 5.3% (expected 5.2%).</p><p>China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have commented on the results, in blunt terms from Chinese authorities:</p><ul><li>economy continues to recovery in July</li><li>the foundation for economic recovery needs to be cemented</li><li>boost to domestic demand is needed, domestic demand is not sufficient</li></ul><p>Earlier in the session e had surprise rate cuts from the People's Bank of China:</p><p>The People's Bank of China cut the MLF to 2.5% from 2.65 previously:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.forexlive.com/centralbank/pboc-1-year-mlf-rate-cut-to-265-prior-275-as-widely-expected-20230615/" target="_blank" data-article-link="true">PBOC 1 year MLF rate cut to 2.65% (prior 2.75%), as widely expected</a></li></ul><p>And cut the reverse repo rate to 1.8% from 1.9% previously</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.forexlive.com/centralbank/pboc-sets-usd-cny-reference-rate-for-today-at-71768-vs-estimate-at-72648-20230815/" target="_blank" data-article-link="true">PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 7.1768 (vs. estimate at 7.2648)</a></li></ul>

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.