China's struggles deepen

<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 China is showing signs of struggle, and yet the Wall Street-anticipated signs the US would slow in 2023 are <a href="https://www.atlantafed.org/cqer/research/gdpnow" target="_blank"><strong>yet to emerge</strong></a>.</p><p>But first, this coming week will be dominated by the US Federal Reserve's interest rate decision on Thursday (NZT). Also on Thursday, Fonterra will report its profit result and it is expected to be an unusually good one. Additionally in the United States, all eyes will be on the release of  September PMI figures at the end of the week, as well as several housing indicators earlier including housing starts, building permits, and existing home sales. Central banks in England, Japan, China, Turkey, Norway, Sweden, Thailand, Switzerland, Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Africa will all be reviewing monetary policies and rates. Eyes will be on updated inflation rates in the UK, Canada, and Japan. And there will be PMI data for France, Germany, the UK, the Euro Area, Japan, and Australia.</p><p>Over the weekend, China <a href="http://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/zxfb/202309/t20230915_1942839.html" target="_blank"><strong>said</strong></a> the cost of new houses slipped -0.1% in August from July, the same slippage as in the month before. Given the known low sales levels, this seems a dubious outcome, especially as only 16 of the 70 largest cities reported prices holding or advancing very slightly. The rest fell. For pre-owned houses, prices inched up in only 3 of the 70 major cities in August from July. The reported slippages in the other 67 cities were remarkably similar, which also doesn't pass the smell test. This all has <a href="https://www.interest.co.nz/economy/124299/zhiyong-yang-looks-how-china%E2%80%99s-struggling-real-estate-sector-hitting-