China’s economic recovery ‘unstable, uneven’ as retail sales, industrial production growth slows
- Retail sales and industrial production grew by 8.5 per cent and 6.4 per cent, respectively, in July from a year earlier
- Fixed-asset investment grew by 10.3 per cent in the January-July period, while the surveyed jobless rate stood at 5.1 per cent in July, from 5 per cent in June
China’s economic slowdown continued in July, data released on Monday showed, with both industrial production and retail sales falling short of expectations.
Retail sales, a key measurement of consumer spending in the world’s most populous nation, grew by 8.5 per cent in July, down from the 12.1 per cent increase in June, and below the projection for a 10.9 per cent rise estimated in the Bloomberg survey.
Fixed-asset investment – a gauge of expenditures on items including infrastructure, property, machinery and equipment – grew by 10.3 per cent in the January-July period compared with a year earlier. This was below the median of the Bloomberg survey, which called for an increase of 11.3 per cent. For the January-June period, fixed-asset investment had been up by 12.6 per cent.
“Given the combined impact of sporadic local outbreaks of Covid-19 and natural disasters on the economy of some regions, the economic recovery is still unstable and uneven,” said NBS spokesman Fu Linghui.