China Jan-Feb industrial output, retail sales beat expectations
BEIJING (Reuters) — China's factory output sped up in the January-February period and beat expectations, marking a solid start for 2024 and offering tentative relief to policymakers who are seeking to shore up faltering economic growth.
Industrial output rose 7.0% in the first two months of the year, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday, above expectations for a 5.0% increase in a Reuters poll of analysts and faster than the 6.8% growth seen in December. It also marked the quickest growth in almost two years.
Retail sales, a gauge of consumption, rose 5.5%, slowing from a 7.4% increase in December. Analysts had expected retail sales to grow 5.2%.
The eight-day Lunar New Year holiday in February saw a solid return of travel, which supported revenue of tourism and hospitality sectors.
Fixed asset investment expanded 4.2% in the first two months of 2024 from the same period a year earlier, versus expectations for a 3.2% rise. It grew 3.0% in the whole of 2023.
Together with better-than-expected trade data and consumer inflation, Monday's indicators will provide some temporary encouragement for policymakers as they try to shore up growth in the world's second-largest economy to keep it on track for an expansion of around 5% this year.
But analysts say achieving such growth would be more challenging than last year, which had a lower base effect due to COVID curbs in 2022. Moreover, the property sector remains weak and could continue to be a major impediment to a solid recovery this year.
Property investment slid 9.0% year-on-year in January-February, compared with a 24.0% fall in December but still far from levels of reaching stability.
The NBS publishes combined January and February
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