Last week, world stock markets staged a brief rally on hopes from China. This week, they have rallied in spite of China.
The welter of new information from Beijing this week is hard to interpret; year-on-year comparisons are tricky thanks to the Chinese new year. But in essence, we have learnt that China now has deflation; that its stimulus package, announced in November, has prompted huge domestic investment; and that both imports and exports have fallen by a quarter over the last year, bringing down the trade deficit.
