Bloomberg details:

China’s manufacturing grew at the slowest pace in 17 months in July as the government clamped down on property speculation and investment in energy-intensive and polluting factories.

The Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 51.2 from 52.1 in June, the Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said on its website yesterday. A reading above 50 shows an expansion.

A deeper Chinese slowdown could weaken a global recovery already constrained by the debt burdens and unemployment of advanced economies. While growth is cooling, China’s full-year expansion may be as much as 9.5 percent, up from 9.1 percent in 2009, State Council researcher Zhang Liqun said yesterday.

“The Chinese economy is slowing down mainly due to the ongoing property tightening measures,” said Lu Ting, a Hong Kong-based economist at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch. “Beijing will surely ramp up spending on public housing and other public works to stabilize growth.”