I travelled last week to Singapore thinking the mantra of each of my visits over the past two years would repeat itself: “China trumps Greece in the commodities markets; do not worry about falling demand and prices.”

Yet, this time it was all very different. Yes, China trumps Greece in commodities. But the story about China is bearish, not bullish as in the past. To my surprise, I found Singapore-based traders as worried about the economic outlook as their Europe-based counterparts.

Chinese economic growth slowed down to 8.1 per cent in the first quarter from the same period of 2011, the weakest rise in nearly three years. And other key economic indicators followed by Chinese policy makers, including electricity consumption, rail cargo volumes and disbursement of bank loans, point to a sharper slowdown in the second quarter of the year.