Economy Talk

Why does China's weak retail number matter so much for Australia?

So China's Q3 growth came in at 4.5%, which beat forecasts! Great, right? But the GONOM piece points out retail sales only rose 1.1% in September and fixed-asset investment, which includes property, fell 7.2% over nine months!

I'm in Perth and half of our economy here feels like it depends on iron ore going to China to build things. If builders are quiet in China, doesn't that matter more for us than the headline number?

Would love people who know trade better than me to explain how exposed we really are! Is the export boom in chips any help to us at all?