China’s downturn threatens global growth

Economic growth in China is slowing. And that will do nothing to help a lethargic global economy.

Miao Girl Festival in China © Jie Zhao/Corbis via Getty Images

China's latest growth figures do not paint such a bright picture
(Image credit: Miao Girl Festival in China © Jie Zhao/Corbis via Getty Images)

China's latest growth figures were "dire", says Freya Beamish of Pantheon Macroeconomics. Official data shows that growth in the world's second-largest economy slowed to 6% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2019. The Shanghai Composite index fell by more than 1% on the news, report Martin Strydom and Gurpreet Narwan in The Times. Western markets also retreated.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.