Official: Virus, floods to cut China growth

China’s economic growth will soften this year due to summer flooding and anti-coronavirus controls, an official said Monday, after consumer sales and other activity weakened in July. China’s economy still is in a “recovery trend” from last year’s pandemic-induced slowdown but is likely to weaken after a relatively strong first half, said Fu Linghui, a spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics. “This year’s main economic growth trend will be ‘low after high,“’ Fu said at a news conference. Fu gave no growth forecast. Private sector forecasters say the world’s second-largest economy should easily achieve 8 percent growth over last year’s depressed level.