China's economic sniffles unnerve global investors

A Chinese economic 'sniffle' is sending major stock indices to multi-week lows as the authorities introduce restrictions on lending.

Analysts used to say that if the US economy sneezed, global markets caught a sniffle, say Jennifer Hughes and Robert Cookson in the FT. Now a Chinese sniffle seems to be having "almost the same impact", helping to send major stock indices to multi-week lows.

Last week the authorities introduced restrictions on lending. Those came a few days after banks' reserve requirements were raised from Tuesday. The worry is that growth is set to slow and could even be choked off in the only major global economy that has been growing healthily. Red-hot data last week has compounded tightening jitters. There was a 10.7% jump in annual GDP in the fourth quarter, while in December annual inflation rose to 1.9%, up from 0.8% in November.

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