the chinese economy grew less than expected in the second quarter underlining the shaky recovery seen since the reopening in late2022 q2 growth comes in light chinas gdp rose 63 yearoveryear in the second quarter faster than the 45 rate seen in the first quarter preliminary estimates released by the national bureau of statistics china showed the growth rate however trailed the 73 increase estimated by economists according to reuters on a quarteroverquarter basis gdp rose 08 also trailing expectations of 22 growth crunching the numbers agricultural production rose 33 yearoveryear in the first half of 2023 and industrial output growth accelerated from 3 in the first quarter to 38 in the first half of the year the service sector growth also accelerated from 54 in the first quarter to 64 in the first half of the year retail sales were up 82 in the first half of the year and fixed asset investment rose 38 property investment which accounts for about onethird of total investment fell by 79 the south china morning post reported nbs data showed that imports fell 01 while exports climbed 37 and the trade balance was a surplus of 282 trillion yuan 3932 billion producer prices showed deflation in the first half of the year while prices at the consumer level rose 07 yearoveryear “in the first half year as the economic and social development has fully returned to normal and macro policies have manifested effects the national economy showed a good momentum of recovery with highquality development advancing steadily” nbs said the most recent data points show further slackening the total value of exports and imports fell 6 in june with exports plunging 83 and imports declining by a more modest 26 the annual retail sales growth also slowed to 31 in june the unemployment rate in urban areas was 52 in june the jobless rate for the 1624 age group hit a new high of 213 in june up from 208 in may scmp said see also best chinese stocks consumptioninduced slowdown economists see the risk of a growth downgrade and call for stimuli to rev up growth “certainly this is a consumptioninduced slowdown which calls for policy support on the demand side we believe further rate cuts are more or less warranted and see the mediumterm lending facility rates will be lowered by another 10 basis points as soon as the third quarter” said zhou hao chief economist at guotai junan international scmp reported china stocks in spotlight the chinese stocks listed in the us could be in the spotlight in the wake of slower domestic growth most of the highprofile tech names in china are coming off a multiyear slowdown amid economic uncertainties and the government’s clampdown to check their sprawling businesses these companies also find themselves in the crosshairs of the uschina political tensions the softer secondquarter growth does not bode well for tech names such as alibaba group holding limited baba tencent holdings limited tcehy and jdcom inc jd as well as new energy vehicle manufacturers such as byd company limited byddy byddf and nio inc nio the ishares msci china etf mchi an exchangetraded fund that tracks the performance of uslisted chinese equities ended friday’s session down 171 at 4664 the etf is down about 1 this year despite the broader market rally read next alibaba stock shoots higher on positive ant financial update – what’s going on