National retail sales grew just 0.4% year-on-year in August 2026, masking steep declines in Shanghai (-6.7%) and Beijing (-2.6%). The data exposes a structural split between China's wealthiest urban cores and the rest of the country.
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Premier Li Qiang chaired a State Council executive meeting on 28 September 2026, triggering a coordinated package of monetary easing and housing subsidies.
National Bureau of Statistics data show total profits reached $784 billion for the first eight months of 2026, up 15.7% year-on-year. The operating profit margin rose 0.44 percentage points to 5.66% even as revenue growth lagged profit growth by nearly nine percentage points.
Revenue from state-owned land use rights transfers fell 28.6% year-on-year in the first eight months of 2026, totalling approximately $205 billion — an acceleration from the 14.7% decline recorded for all of 2025.