An employee inspects a circuit board on the controller production line at a Gree factory, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei province, China August 16, 2021. China Daily via REUTERS/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
BEIJING, Sept 15 (Reuters) – China’s industrial output grew 4.5% in August from a year earlier, accelerating from the 3.7% pace seen in July, suggesting that the recent flurry of support measures may be starting to slowly stabilise a stumbling economic recovery.
The data released on Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) beat expectations for a 3.9% increase in a Reuters poll of analysts, and marked the quickest rate since April.
Retail sales, a gauge of consumption, also grew at a faster 4.6% pace in August aided by the summer travel season, and was the quickest growth since May. That compared with a 2.5% increase in July, and an expected 3% increase.
Fixed asset investment expanded 3.2% in the first eight months of 2023 from the same period a year earlier, versus expectations for a 3.3% rise. It grew 3.4% in the January-July period.
The figures followed better-than-expected bank lending data, narrowing in the declines of exports and imports as well as easing deflationary pressure, indicating tentative signs of stabilisation in China’s sputtering economy.
All the same, an ailing property sector, high youth unemployment, uncertainty around household consumption and rising Sino-U.S. tensions over trade, technology and geopolitics have raised the bar for a durable economic recovery in the near future.
Reporting by Albee Zhang, Ellen Zhang and Joe Cash Editing by Shri Navaratnam
