By Jihye Lee and Fabiana Negrin Ochoa
China's weaker-than-expected second-quarter growth has prompted economists to trim their annual forecasts for the world's second-largest economy, fueling expectations that Beijing will step up policy support.
"As this is the slowest [gross domestic product] growth print since the pandemic, it has clearly elicited concern among top policymakers," Nomura analysts said in a note.
The reductions in full-year growth estimates followed the release of GDP data that fell well below China's official target. Retail sales for June pointed to still-subdued demand while housing price and investment data showed that the property-sector slump has yet to turn a corner.
That stands in contrast to China's resilient exports growth and industrial production, an outperformance fueled in part by the artificial-intelligence boom.
