Asian markets edge down after series of weak Chinese data
Investors worry about an economic slowdown in China.
Asian shares were mostly down today (September 15th) as China released a series of data pointing to a possible slowdown of the world's second economy.
A report last week showing that inflation remained weak in August was followed by new data over the weekend revealing that industrial output growth was at its lowest level since the 2008 global financial crisis.
That led economists at Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays to slash their Chinese economic forecasts. The latest reading "paints quite a bearish picture" and puts a "real risk" to currency and commodity markets in Asia in the next one to two weeks, Jonathan Cavenagh, senior Asian currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corp, told the Wall Street Journal.
The MSCI All Countries Asia Ex-Japan is down 2.2 per cent. Seoul closed 0.30 per cent lower to 2,035.82, while HongKong fell 0.97 per cent to 24,356.99.
However, Shanghai ended 0.31 per cent higher to 2,339.14 as investors hoped the weak data would encourage the government to unveil new measures to boost the economy.
Learn about the Asian markets and CFD trading at City Index.