China Gaoshou 中国高手, Mountain Man, Food Maven

  ANOTHER RAFT OF LARGELY BAD MONTHLY ECONOMIC DATA FROM CHINA: The May numbers on inflation, the housing market, exports and imports, and retail sales are now all in and, save for the latter, none are good.   Once again, when it comes to disappointing economic data, China continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. Last month saw a continued fall  in consumer and factory gate prices.   The consumer price index (CPI) dipped 0.2% on a monthly basis after registering a slight uptick of 0.1% in April.   Compared to a year earlier, the CPI fell 0.1% in May, matching a similar 0.1% decline compared to a year earlier in April.   Factory gate prices, as measured by the Producer Price Index (PPI), underwent a sharper drop, falling 3.3% in May from a year earlier.   This was worse than the 2.7% drop from a year earlier in April and was the biggest decline in the PPI in 22 months.   May marked the 32 nd consecutive month in which China’s PPI has bee...