China continued to recover from fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic in July as major economic indicators for investment and consumption improved from the previous month, but its labor market remained weak, official data showed Friday.
Fixed-asset investment, a key driver of domestic demand that includes infrastructure spending, fell 1.6% year-on-year in the first seven months, according to data (link in Chinese) released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). That was milder than the median forecast of a 1.8% drop in a Caixin survey (link in Chinese) of economists, and also an improvement from a 3.1% drop over the first six months.
Infrastructure investment, which consists of spending on the construction of roads and railways and is generally led by the government, shrank 1% year-on-year in the first seven months, narrowing from a 2.7% decline in the January-to-June period.
Investment in real estate development rose 3.4% year-on-year (link in Chinese) in the first seven months, accelerating from a 1.9% rise in the January-to-June period.
Retail sales, which include spending by households, governments and businesses, fell 1.1% year-on-year (link in Chinese) last month, an improvement from the 1.8% decline in June, but failing to meet the Caixin survey’s median forecast of a 0.5% rise.
Value-added industrial output, which measures production by factories, mines and utilities, grew 4.8% year-on-year (link in Chinese) in July, unchanged from the previous month. The reading was lower than the median forecast of a 5.1% rise in the Caixin survey.
China’s surveyed urban unemployment rate stayed at 5.7% (link in Chinese) in July, NBS data show, unchanged from June. However, the country only added 6.71 million urban jobs in the first seven months, down 1.96 million, or 22.6%, year-on-year.
Contact reporter Guo Yingzhe (yingzheguo@caixin.com) and editor Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)
