Today's avalanche of China data suggests that the eco-nomic recovery is solid, but that the momentum ebbed in July. What was a V-shaped recovery now seems to be experiencing a little gravitational pull A number of indicators-industrial and electricity production as well as fixed asset investment-showed either flat or slightly weaker year-on-year growth in July. New bank loans came in at only CNY 355.9bn (USD 52bn), well below June's CNY 1.53trn; as we ex-plain below, this lending went heavily to households rather than corporates (see Table 1). The slightly weaker-than-expected data means an even smaller chance of an imminent change in macro policy and lends weight to those who argue that it is too early to tighten. Having seen the data early, Premier Wen Jiabao restated in August that the goal was to maintain a proactive fiscai policy and a moderately loose monetary policy.