China’s economy set for ‘painful, bumpy’ road amid zero-Covid exit as November retail sales plunge
- Industrial production rose by 2.2 per cent in November from a year earlier, but retail sales fell by 5.9 per cent last month
- Fixed-asset investment rose by 5.3 per cent in the January-November period, while the surveyed jobless rate stood at 5.7 per cent last month
A sharp fall in retail sales and a surge in its jobless rate in November highlights the “painful and bumpy” road ahead for China amid its exit from its zero-Covid policy, with the economy not set to “return to normal” until the second quarter of next year, analysts said.
Coronavirus outbreaks worsened in China last month amid a rise in cases, triggering stricter control measures that curbed mobility, capped factory production and hurt confidence, leading to retail sales to fall by 5.9 per cent compared to a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) confirmed on Thursday.
Analysts at Capital Economics said the coronavirus “situation is largely to blame”, with the easing of restrictions towards the end of the month offering “little in the way of relief”.
The urban surveyed jobless rate, meanwhile, stood at 5.7 per cent in November, up from 5.5 per cent in October, to the highest reading since the rate stood at 6.1 per cent in April.