China’s Economic Growth Shows Surprise Slowdown

Economic growth in China reportedly fell to its slowest pace in five quarters.

The surprise slowdown came as a decline in consumer spending hamstrung an increase in exports, Bloomberg reported Monday (July 15).

Gross domestic product grew 4.7% year over year in the second quarter, lower than all but one of 28 estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists, the report said.

Meanwhile, retail sales climbed at their slowest monthly pace in nearly two years, a sign that the government’s efforts to bolster confidence haven’t had much impact on consumers, per the report.

President Xi Jinping’s investments in manufacturing and high-tech sectors to fuel China’s growth in the post-pandemic era got a boost, as industrial production was strong. However, that sector could face new headwinds if former U.S. President Donald Trump returns to office and makes good on his promise to hike tariffs on Chinese imports.

The news came weeks after new data from the United Nations showed China with a comfortable lead in the race to develop artificial intelligence products.

Between 2014 and last year, more than 38,000 generative AI inventions came out of China, six times the number of those from the second-place United States, the U.N.’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said.

“Through analyzing patenting trends and data, WIPO hopes to give everyone a better understanding of where this fast-evolving technology is being developed, and where it is headed,” WIPO Director General Daren Tang said July 3. “This can help policymakers shape the development of GenAI for our common benefit and to ensure that we continue to put the human being at the center of our innovation and creative ecosystems.”

However, PYMNTS wrote soon afterward that although China is the clear winner in overall AI patents, it’s important to use caution against coming to overly simplistic conclusions based solely on patent numbers.

“The quality and impact of patents vary significantly, and a single groundbreaking patent could potentially have more real-world impact than numerous incremental improvements,” the report said. “Additionally, different countries have varying patent systems and standards for granting patents, affecting the comparability of patent counts across nations.”