Chinese industry and services continued to slow down in July. This was shown on Saturday by figures from the Chinese government.

The industry index fell from 50.9 in June to 50.4 in July. As a result, the decline was stronger than economists had expected. They expected an index of 50.8 for July. It is now the fourth month in a row that growth is slowing down.

The index measuring the activity of the Chinese service sector reached 53.3 in July, which is fractionally less than 53.5 in June. Here too, growth has been slowing down for four months in a row.

An index position greater than 50 indicates growth, while less than 50 means contraction.