Hope for Chinese stimulus builds as investment spending slows

Reduced spending on coal and metals saw a slowdown in China’s investment spending — which fell below 10% for the first time since 2000 between January and May of this year.

Investment by private firms slumped to 3.9% in the same period, the slowest since China began publishing the data in 2012.

Foreign direct investment in the country, meanwhile, declined 1% in May on the same month a year earlier.

The figures have triggered expectations that the government — which has recently been more cautious about state stimulus — will change its mind.

Analysts are already predicting fiscal measures such as government officials approving infrastructure projects more speedily.

Angela Merkel and Chinese premier Li Keqiang today signed €2.7 billion of deals, with carmaker Daimler and Airbus’s German helicopter unit involved.

Merkel pressed for transparent rules for foreign investors, while telling Li that the EU is “working on a solution” for China’s demand to be granted so-called market economy status.