China’s May factory output slows, retail sales surprisingly upbeat

BEIJING: China’s industrial output rose 5.8% year-on-year in May, slowing from the 6.1% pace in April and missing forecasts, but retail sales growth unexpectedly picked up, official data showed on Monday.

The industrial output data, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), missed expectations for a 5.9% increase in a Reuters poll and marked the slowest growth since November last year.

Retail sales, a gauge of consumption, rose 6.4% in May, compared to 5.1% growth in April.

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It was the quickest growth since December 2023. Analysts had expected retail sales to rise 5.0%.

Fixed asset investment expanded 3.7% in the first five months this year from the same period a year earlier, compared with the expectations for a 3.9% rise.

It grew 4.0% in the January to April period.