“Business is slower and more challenging this year compared to the same period last year — I would say prices are down over all by 5 percent this year,” said Elaine Yan, the manager of the import and export department at Wuxi Zontai International, a trading company in Wuxi, China, that sells leather gloves, handbags, scissors and embroidery.

Sopheia Wang, the sales manager at Kunshan Tianyuan Precision Industry, a manufacturer of coffee pots and mugs based near Shanghai, said that her company had resisted cutting prices so far because the local minimum wage had risen 21 percent last month.

“With the global economy not doing well, we are looking into developing the domestic market for our products, rather than actively adjusting downward our pricing,” she said.

Companies are saving money on raw materials, however, because the global boom in commodity prices swung into reverse in March.

Chinese economic policy makers did little to respond to the country’s slowing economy from mid-March to mid-May. That period happened to coincide with a factional struggle, as a prominent member of the Communist Party, Bo Xilai, was removed as party secretary of Chongqing in March and suspended from the Politburo in April.

The country’s leadership now seems to be reacting with policies aimed at offsetting the economic slowdown. Mr. Wen took an inspection tour of east central China over the weekend and called for more aggressive fiscal and monetary policies. The Chinese central bank cut interest rates twice over the last month.

But Mr. Wen also reaffirmed over the weekend the central government’s commitment to improving the affordability of housing, through policies designed to discourage real estate speculation. Banks have been discouraged from issuing mortgages for second and third homes, for example.