Mark Williams, chief Asia economist for London-based Capital Economics notes that residential property sales in China fell nine percent year-over-year, while inventories of unsold property rose 24 percent. While a necessary step in deflating a potentially devastating real estate bubble, that has crimped consumer spending, which combined with many Chinese people’s propensity to save has weighed on the economy

“A prolonged period of property weakness has long looked inevitable,” he said in a recent research note, “given that property completions had accelerated ahead of likely growth of property demand based on factors such as demographics and urbanization.”

-- CBS Money Watch quoted Mark Williams, chief Asia economist for London-based Capital Economics on April 17