Key indicators slowed from June, missed forecasts
Youth unemployment touched record high in July
Property investment, sales fall, home price decline deepens
PBOC cuts key rates to revive credit demand

BEIJINGSHANGHAI, Aug 15 Reuters China39;s central bank cut key lending rates in a surprise move on Monday to revive demand as data showed the economy unexpectedly slowing in July, with factory and retail activity squeezed by Beijing39;s zeroCOVID policy and a property crisis.

The grim set of figures indicate the world39;s second largest economy is struggling to shake off the June quarter39;s hit to growth from strict COVID restrictions, prompting some economists to downgrade their projections.

Industrial output grew 3.8 in July from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics NBS, below the 3.9 expansion in June and a 4.6 increase expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.

Retail sales, which only just returned to growth in June, rose 2.7 from a year ago, missing forecasts for 5.0 growth and the 3.1 growth seen in June.

The July data suggest that the postlockdown recovery lost steam as the oneoff boost from reopening fizzled out and mortgage boycotts triggered a renewed deterioration in the property sector, said Julian EvansPritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics.

The People39;s Bank of China is already responding to these headwinds by stepping up support…But with credit growth proving less responsive to policy loosening than in…