Tonight we saw Chinese trade data disappoint markets.

But Chinese data has been coming in weak for some time now. Earlier this year, Nomura said growth could fall below 7% this year. HSBC slashed its GDP forecast to 7.4% in 2013, down from 8.2%.

Remember, in the Chinese version of the State of the Union speech last year, outgoing premier Wen Jiabao said China had set an official growth target of 7.5%. The latest string of data and Chinese policymakers' hardline amid the recent liquidity squeeze suggests that GDP growth could miss this target.

Bloomberg BRIEF's Michael McDonough tweeted this chart of China's GDP forecasts for the second, third, and fourth quarter of 2013. Clearly economists are expecting slower growth:

Michael McDonough/Bloomberg BRIEF

He later tweeted that policymakers would have to do more to meet the 7.5% GDP target.

China's government will most likely need to react to defend its 7.5 percent growth target.

— Michael McDonough (@M_McDonough) July 10, 2013

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