China’s faltering economy requires a lifeline from the central bank, regardless of admonitions that inflation is creeping higher and needs to be contained. With growth struggling and demand for credit cratering, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has made clear that it’s the recovery first. Price increases might be worrying, but are a second order problem — for now. ...

  Over the last 18 months or so, the quick and easy interpretation of inflation data has turned out to be incorrect. Will it be different going forward? Markets sure hope so. Federal Reserve officials seem more cautious, and rightly so. The markets’ latest narrative pivot is not the right one for the world’s most powerful central bank. When the ...

  Bloomberg Investors wanting to gauge the health of global consumer sentiment should look no further than China’s factories right now. Makers of Christmas decorations to clothing and tents say orders from overseas customers are drying up, with some predicting the best they can aim for is flat demand versus last year, according to more than a dozen export managers ...