China is heading for its longest slowdown in consumption growth since its post-Covid rebound lost steam more than four years ago, underscoring how the government’s rhetoric about supporting domestic demand has struggled to match reality.
Government data due on Friday will likely show retail sales rose 2.8% last month from a year before, the median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey shows. That would mark the fifth straight month of deceleration — the longest such streak since 2021, and the weakest gain in more than a year.