China yesterday said that it would stop publishing data on its rising youth unemployment rate, as it released a raft of disappointing figures that stoked concerns over the state of the world’s second-largest economy.
Shortly before the latest uninspiring indicators were published, the People’s Bank of China cut a key interest rate in an effort to boost flagging growth.
Photo: AFP
DISAPPOINTING
Yesterday’s data added to a slew of disappointing figures in recent months reflecting a slump in China’s post-COVID-19 rebound, with joblessness among 16-to-24-year-olds hitting a record 21.3 percent in June.
China slipped into deflation for the first time in more than two years last month, due to waning consumption and flagging exports.
The National Bureau of Statistics said that it would no longer release age-group-specific unemployment data starting this month, citing the need to “further improve and optimize labor force survey statistics.”
“Starting from this August, the release of urban unemployment rates for youth and other age groups across the country will be suspended,” bureau spokesman Fu Linghui (傅令輝) told a news conference.
Overall, unemployment rose to 5.3 percent last month compared with 5.2 percent in June, the bureau said.
College student Li Nuojun said yesterday in Beijing that the jobless rate among young people had her “very worried.”
“When thinking about finding a job, I become very anxious,” the 18-year-old said.
The announcement that youth unemployment data would be suspended came as Beijing released a series of weak economic indicators for last month.
Retail sales, a key gauge of consumption, grew 2.5 percent year-on-year, the bureau said, down from 3.1 percent in June and falling short of analysts’ expectations.
Industrial production grew 3.7 percent from a year earlier, down from 4.4 percent in June.
The suspension of youth jobs data “may further weaken global investors’ confidence in China,” Nomura Holdings Inc chief China economist Ting Lu (陸挺) said in a note.
Chinese social media users expressed skepticism over officials’ explanation of the move, with the topic receiving more than 140 million views and tens of thousands of comments on the Sina Weibo platform.
“Can you solve the problem by gagging and blindfolding yourself?” one Beijing-based user asked in a post liked by more than 3,000 people.
The recent data suggest China might struggle to attain its 5 percent growth target for the year. The economy grew just 0.8 percent between the first and second quarters of this year, official figures show.
RATE CUTS
In a surprise move, the central bank yesterday cut the medium-term lending facility (MLF) rate — the interest for one-year loans to financial institutions — from 2.65 percent to 2.5 percent.
A lower MLF rate reduces commercial banks’ financing costs, in turn encouraging them to lend more and potentially boosting domestic consumption.
“We believe the Chinese economy is faced with an imminent downward spiral with the worst yet to come, and the rate cut this morning will be of limited help,” Lu said.
TECH BOOST: New TSMC wafer fabs in Arizona are to dramatically improve US advanced chip production, a report by market research firm TrendForce said With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) pouring large funds into Arizona, the US is expected to see an improvement in its status to become the second-largest maker of advanced semiconductors in 2027, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week. TrendForce estimates the US would account for a 21 percent share in the global advanced integrated circuit (IC) production market by 2027, sharply up from the current 9 percent, as TSMC is investing US$65 billion to build three wafer fabs in Arizona, the report said. TrendForce defined the advanced chipmaking processes as the 7-nanometer process or more
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
OPEN SCIENCE: International collaboration on math and science will persevere even if the incoming Trump administration imposes strict controls, Nvidia’s CEO said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Saturday that global cooperation in technology would continue even if the incoming US administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products. US president-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of US technology to China citing national security — a policy continued under US President Joe Biden. The curbs forced Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to change its product lineup in China. The US chipmaking giant last week reported record-high quarterly revenue on the back of strong AI chip
Qualcomm Inc’s interest in pursuing an acquisition of Intel Corp has cooled, people familiar with the matter said, upending what would have likely been one of the largest technology deals of all time. The complexities associated with acquiring all of Intel has made a deal less attractive to Qualcomm, said some of the people, asking not to be identified discussing confidential matters. It is always possible Qualcomm looks at pieces of Intel instead or rekindles its interest later, they added. Representatives for Qualcomm and Intel declined to comment. Qualcomm made a preliminary approach to Intel on a possible takeover, Bloomberg News and other media