China’s economy lost momentum in July, with official data showing factory output rising 5.7% from a year earlier, the weakest pace in eight months, while retail sales grew just 3.7%, the slowest since December 2024. The latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics undershot economists’ expectations and underscore a broad slowdown at the start of the third quarter. Investment and the property sector also deteriorated. Fixed-asset investment increased only 1.6% in the first seven months of the year, down from 2.8% in the first half. Property investment tumbled 12% over the same period and new home prices fell 2.8% year-on-year, eroding household wealth and dampening consumption. The urban unemployment rate edged up to 5.2% as a fresh cohort of university graduates entered the labour market, and new yuan lending shrank for the first time in two decades, signalling weak credit demand. Beijing faces multiple headwinds, including President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, a recently extended truce that still leaves businesses wary of future levies, and domestic measures aimed at curbing fierce price competition. Extreme weather disruptions and a prolonged real-estate downturn have further weighed on production and spending. Economists say the disappointing data intensify pressure on policymakers to deploy additional fiscal and monetary support if they are to achieve the government’s growth target of about 5% for 2025. A Reuters poll now projects GDP expansion to cool to 4.5% in the third quarter and 4.0% in the fourth, raising the stakes for upcoming policy meetings.