BEIJING — China’s economic slowdown slammed into Li Fangliang, cutting sales at his Shanghai auto parts store by half.
“There are just fewer and fewer customers,” said Li, who has avoided layoffs among his four employees. “I plan to start a shop online to find new markets.”
From shopkeepers to shipbuilders, some areas are feeling more pain from China’s deepest slowdown since the 2008 global crisis than still-robust headline growth of about 8 percent might suggest.
Higher spending by state industry and government-directed investment is pumping up the world’s second-largest economy, but that is masking the fact that the private sector is cutting jobs and scrambling to prop up plunging sales.
Data due out Friday are expected to show that growth in the three months ending in June fell as low as 7.3 percent, down from the previous quarter’s nearly three-year low of 8.1 percent. That is in line with this year’s official 7.5 percent target.
The slowdown is a setback for economies around the world that were looking to China to drive demand for exports and support global growth.
“Domestic demand remains weak,” said JP Morgan economist Francis Fu in a report. “Corporate profits have continued to decline, and incentive for business investment is low.”
Other industries including cargo handling and manufacturers of shoes, clothing, optical fiber and wind turbines are suffering lower profits or losses and cutting jobs, according to Chinese news reports.
