“The structural issue for China is the permanent slowdown in the housing market,” said Andrew Batson, China economist at Gavekal Dragonomics. “It is not a collapse, but it is a clear slowdown, and it is having a very significant impact on the overall economy, and on sectors such as the heavy-industry sector that produces a lot of steel and cement.”

“In the consumer sector, household incomes are holding up better, but they are not insulated completely from what’s going on in the rest of the economy,” he added.

-- Andrew Batson, China economist at Gavekal Dragonomics, told The Washington Post on April 15