China’s economy continued to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic in August, major indicators released Tuesday showed, as consumption grew year-on-year for the first time this year.
Retail sales, which include spending by households, governments and businesses, rose 0.5% year-on-year last month, reversing a 1.1% drop in July, according to data (link in Chinese) from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The reading was the same as the median forecast in a Caixin survey (link in Chinese) of economists.
Fixed-asset investment, a key driver of domestic demand that includes infrastructure spending, fell 0.3% year-on-year (link in Chinese) in the first eight months. That was an improvement from the 1.6% drop over the first seven months, and milder than the median forecast of a 0.5% drop in the Caixin survey.
Infrastructure investment, which consists of spending on construction of roads and railways and is generally led by the government, shrank 0.3% year-on-year in the first eight months, narrowing from a 1% decline in the January-to-July period.
Value-added industrial output, which measures production by factories, mines and utilities, grew 5.6% year-on-year (link in Chinese) in August, accelerating from a 4.8% rise the previous month. The reading was better than the median forecast of a 5.2% rise in the Caixin survey.
The labor market showed a mild improvement as China’s surveyed urban unemployment rate eased to 5.6% (link in Chinese) in August, NBS data showed, down from 5.7% the previous month.
Contact reporter Guo Yingzhe (yingzheguo@caixin.com) and editor Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)
