China's Post-Lockdown Recovery Fizzles

Since April, we have been observing that China’s economic recovery over the six months since the government lifted pandemic lockdown restrictions in early December has been surprisingly weak. The country’s total imports have been flat since late 2021 through May of this year (chart).

The rallies in the price of copper and in the China MSCI stock price index late last year and early this year have fizzled in recent weeks (chart). May’s CPI was up by just 0.2% y/y, while the PPI was down 4.6% y/y.