Chinese Economic Woes

 Just a few random stories:

• "'Bedmates' are a hot commodity for China's broke and jobless youth, who say they need to sleep next to strangers just to survive in the country's megacities"--Insider. From the lede:

    Young people struggling in China's megacities have found a way to fit rent into their dwindling budgets — sharing a bed with a stranger.

    As the country faces a youth-unemployment crisis, posts advertising shared bed spaces in urban sprawls like Shanghai and Beijing have emerged on Xiaohongshu, China's new version of Instagram.

    The practice is different from "hot-bedding," a trend in the West where tenants save on rent by taking turns to sleep. In China, "bedmates" sleep together in the same bed and split the cost of the room.

• "Factory Activity In China Falls In July, Pressuring Leaders To Take Action"--The Daily Financial Trends.
• "China tries to boost consumer spending as factory sector contracts for fourth month"--CNN Business. 

    China unveiled a series of measures to boost domestic consumption Monday after more gloomy data about the health of the economy. But it stopped short of announcing a major package of new spending or tax cuts.

    The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), which measures activity in the manufacturing sector at mainly larger business and state-owned firms, came in at 49.3 in July, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

    That result was slightly up compared with 49 in June but the industry has now contracted each month since April. A PMI reading above 50 indicates expansion, while anything below that level shows contraction.

    The official non-manufacturing PMI, which looks at activities in services and construction, also fell, to 51.5. That is the lowest rate since December, when the index hit its weakest level since February 2020 at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

• "THE DAILY CHART: CHINA SYNDROME?"--Powerline Blog. 

    There’s a lot of bad economic news coming out of China. While we continue to battle inflation, China is experiencing deflation. The real estate sector is in the tank. Property values are sinking fast. One claim I’ve seen is that Evergrande has liabilities over $1.5 trillion, but only $8 billion in liquidity, while Country Garden, China’s largest real estate company, missed two interest payments on its bonds earlier this week.

    Then there’s this: rising unemployment among young Chinese. That’s okay—they can join the army and help invade Taiwan.