China's economic problems just get worse

[Egentis]

Makes a change from inflation. Good news for poorer members of society but causing a big problem for businesses:

China’s consumer prices slid deeper into deflationary territory last month, suffering their biggest drop since the global recession in 2009 and underscoring the huge challenges facing the economy.

The country’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) dropped by 0.8% in January from a year ago, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday. It was the steepest fall since September 2009 and marks a fourth straight month of decline.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/08/economy/china-cpi-fall-deflation-intl-hnk/index.html

[MarkR]

I suppose it stands to reason. After buying an apartment (on paper, pre-construction) with your savings, you suddenly determine that that apartment is likely to never be completed, and even if it is completed, nobody will live in it and pay you rent, and demographics show that population will decline for the next 30 years at least, what’s the first thing you do? You STOP spending because you have to build your savings up again. And if even a small percentage of population stops spending, prices start to decline.