China just crawling along now

<p>Kia ora,</p><p>Welcome to Monday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.</p><p>I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz.</p><p>And today we lead with news, a pair of surveys confirm the giant Chinese economy is just crawling along, neither expanding nor contracting.</p><p>First up today however, we need to note that it is a holiday in much of Australia, their Labour Day.</p><p>And late on Friday, they released <a href="https://foreigninvestment.gov.au/sites/foreigninvestment.gov.au/files/2023-09/quarterly-report-april-june-2023-446221.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>a review</strong></a> of June quarter foreign investment rulings. In the residential section, China (including Hong Kong) had AU$1.3 bln of applications approved, taking the total for the prior 12 months to AU$4 bln (page 6). The next eight largest country sources got approvals for AU$2 bln combined. From all sources, they approved AU$7.9 bln in that year. So there seems to be a rush on by buyers from China and Hong Kong to acquire Aussie houses.</p><p>In China, their factory sector moved back to expansion in September, according to <a href="http://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/zxfb/202309/t20230928_1943291.html"><strong>the official PMI survey</strong></a>, their first expansion since March. Their timid service sector expanded too, and at a fractionally faster rate. But also released over the weekend were the private Caixin PMI surveys for September. That confirmed the marginal <a href="https://www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Home/PressRelease/b5f66636a5164935a488a964441cd1c1" target="_blank"><strong>factory</strong></a> expansion, but suggested the <a href="https://www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Home/PressRelease/801c7bbdae3f487990ac58ae4accf892" target="_blank"><strong>services</strong></a> expansion was weaker than the official measure.</p><p>And staying in China, their Mid-Autumn Festival has started and they are on holiday from Friday until the end of this week. This year