China’s Finance Minister Xie Xuren was called back from an international economic conference in Peru before the meeting began, following orders from Beijing to help resolve problems at home, an organizer of the event said.
Xie left Trujillo, Peru, where Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation finance officials are meeting this week, shortly after arriving at 11:00 a.m. on Nov. 5, Gladys Otero de Swinnen, protocol director for the conference, said in an interview.
“They told him he has to resolve an economic problem and that he’s the only one who could do so,” de Swinnen said. “He was complaining because he had to fly 32 hours to get here and then he had to fly another 32 hours to get back.”
I don’t know what was so critical that he had to fly back just as he got there. But a lot of China’s problems stem from this….
Sales at the nation’s largest retailers fell off a cliff in October, casting fresh doubt on the survival of some chains and signaling that this will probably be the weakest Christmas shopping season in decades.
The remarkable slowdown hit luxury chains that sell $5,000 designer dresses as badly as stores that offer $18 packs of underwear, suggesting that consumers at all income levels are snapping their wallets shut.
A lot of the stuff that is not selling was made in China.