China Says Foreign Concern on Slowdown "Baseless"

Don't make too much of this, but the top headline in the finance section today is the CCP rebutting pandas.

iFeng: 外媒称中国经济“严重放缓” 发改委：无任何依据

On October 21st, Chinanews.com responded to China’s economic data by individual foreign media and believed that China’s economy was “seriously slowing down”. Yuan Da, director of the Policy Research Office of the National Development and Reform Commission, spoke on the 21st, saying, “This is no Any factual basis, untenable."

Xinhua: Skepticism about China's economic growth "groundless": spokesperson

"There is no basis for such skepticism," the spokesperson Yuan Da told a press conference, citing a series of robust economic indicators.

Over 500 million people hit the road during the seven-day National Day holiday. China's power use rose 4.4 percent in the first nine months, while cargo volumes increased 5.9 percent during the period.

"The indicators were the most direct reflections of economic growth, which prove that the national economy maintained overall stability," Yuan said.

If China's economy were growing fast enough, they would have already agreed to a small trade deal. They could afford to give Trump a face-saving short-term win that left them on a strong long-term footing. The trade conflict is a big deal for China because they can't handle a deterioration in trade at this moment.

Reuters: China more than doubles Sept approval for fixed-asset investment projects

China’s state planner in September more than doubled its approval for fixed-asset investment projects, as Beijing looks to step up support for an economy expanding at the slowest pace in nearly three decades.

...The National Development and Reform Commission approved 177.8 billion yuan ($25.15 billion) of investment in 14 fixed-asset projects in September, a commission spokesman Yuan Da told reporters in a briefing on Monday, adding that the investments were mainly in the transportation sector.

That compared with its August approval for 68.9 billion yuan worth of projects.

On Friday, China reported third quarter gross domestic product growth of 6.0%, marking a further loss of momentum for the economy from the second quarter and hitting the lower end of the government target of between 6.0% to 6.5% for the full year.

The September value was also the highest since at least April, official data showed.

Finally:

“As China’s economy shifts from a high-speed growth stage to a high-quality stage, as long as the employment expands, income increases and environment quality improves and economic efficiency increases, it is acceptable for the economic growth to be a tad lower or higher,” Yuan said.

This is on par with the Federal Reserve (or any central bank) claiming it knows the proper level of interest rates. Moreover, like the Fed's intervention plainly rebutting it's own rhetoric, the increase in fixed-asset investment that will be backed by more debt is exactly the type of low-quality "growth" that is causing China's economic slowdown.