Credit restrictions, which were intended to restrain the country's overheating housing sector, which alone accounts for 14% of all steel use in China, have taken a toll.
Cuts in defence spending hit it harder than anywhere else in California; the overheated property sector froze; more than 57,000 jobs disappeared.
Tracy T. Lefteroff, global managing partner of the venture capital practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers observes that investors "are acting prudently and not chasing excessive valuations" and we're "unlikely to see these sectors overheat like we saw in the 1999 to 2000 era".
According to preliminary figures, investment in property development grew by 28% between January and November last year compared with the same period in 2001.Late last year the prime minister, Zhu Rongji, gave a warning that the real-estate sector in some cities was overheating.
But with its ever-rising exports producing trade frictions, with overcapacity emerging in several manufacturing industries and with investment sectors like construction showing signs of overheating, Beijing is slowly but pointedly trying to encourage consumer spending.
The central bank has begun trying to rein in sectors of the economy that appear to be overheating.
But a series of top Chinese officials have publicly told the banks this week to curb lending to sectors of the economy that appear to be overheating.
The housing sector is what's in the freezer, and the oven refers to the overheating in core inflation.
