IT'S AN EVER MORE UNIPOLAR WORLD:

China's economy stumbled in July as a two-month boost from easing lockdowns faded, prompting the country's central bank to unexpectedly cut two key interest rates in an effort to shore up faltering growth.

A raft of data released Monday showed economic activity slowed across the board in July, including factory output, investment, consumer spending, youth hiring and real estate, highlighting the breadth of the economic challenge facing policy makers in a politically sensitive year for leader Xi Jinping, who is expected to break with recent precedent and seek a third term in power this fall.

Economists say Monday's policy moves would probably do little to spur more borrowing by households and businesses who are on edge over the threat of fresh disruptions to daily life from any new Covid-19 outbreaks and gloomy about their prospects against a worsening backdrop for growth and jobs. [...]

The world's second-largest economy is straining under the effects of Beijing's zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19 and a deflating property bubble, which have triggered protests and mortgage-payment strikes in several provinces and cities. Consumers are reluctant to spend and businesses are wary of investing, a consequence of the "humongous uncertainty about the future," said Alicia García-Herrero, Asia-Pacific chief economist at investment bank Natixis in Hong Kong.

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