China’s Economic Slowdown: How Bad Is It?

Tuesday was another nervy day on Wall Street: the Dow closed down almost four hundred and seventy points, or about three per cent. The immediate issue, once again, was China, which by some measures is now the world’s second-largest economy. In Beijing, the government released a set of figures indicating that output from the country’s enormous manufacturing sector is declining. Another new statistic showed that the Chinese services sector, which has been growing pretty strongly, is now exhibiting some weakness, too.