China’s flagging economy is taking its toll on global businesses with industrial bellwether Caterpillar and US chipmaker Nvidia yesterday both blaming their disappointing prospects on the country’s faltering growth.
The warnings follow fears raised by a succession of companies in the US, Europe and Asia about the widening ramifications of the Chinese slowdown. Beijing last week revealed its economy had grown at 6.6 per cent — its slowest annual rate in almost three decades.
Caterpillar, the earth-moving equipment group, yesterday said it expected only a “modest” increase in worldwide sales this year and no growth in China — a sharp slowdown in what had been a booming market in the past two years.