The Chinese credit machine sputtered in July. Growth in Total Aggregate Financing dropped to $144 billion, almost 40% below consensus estimates. This was less than half of June's $320 billion increase and the slowest expansion since February. The sharp slowdown was beyond typical seasonality, with the month's growth in Aggregate Financing 18% below July 2018. Despite July's weak growth, Total Aggregate Financing was still up 10.7% over the past year.
New Bank Loans fell to $150 billion from June's $235 billion, with growth 28% below that from July 2018. At $2.331 TN, New Loans were