New Delhi, July 15 -- the economy expanded 4.3 percent year-on-year, the government's full-year target remained achievable, and industrial output beat expectations. What the official framing did not lead with was the comparison point. At 4.3 percent, China posted its weakest quarterly growth rate since the fourth quarter of 2022, when Shanghai and other major cities were under COVID-19 restrictions that paralysed the world's second-largest economy.

China is producing and exporting at scale while its 1.4 billion citizens are spending cautiously.

Lynn Song, chief China economist at ING Bank, stated it plainly: "This was the slowest growth in any quarter since the lockdown-impacted fourth quarter of 2022." The benchmark matters because it ...