Does anyone care about Chinese growth any more?

Tuesday 20 October 2026

Not really. The great buildout is over, so its impact on commodities has faded. And it never added much to net global demand in anything else because the entire thing is based around exports.

To the extent that it does matter, growth in industrial production (IP) increased from 5.2% yoy in August to 5.5% yoy in September, driven mostly by stronger output growth in the manufacturing of chemicals and non-metal products.

The annual decline in fixed asset investment (FAI) on a monthly basis shrank to-7.2% in September compared to -10.8% in August, as a result of improved weather and a low base.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.