Growth in China’s consumption and industrial production accelerated in April, thanks to a low comparison base a year earlier when COVID-19 lockdowns dented economic activity, official data showed Tuesday.
Retail sales, a key metric for China’s consumption, rose 18.4% from a year earlier in April, accelerating from a 10.6% increase in March, said the National Bureau of Statistics.
The result undershot the 20.5% growth expected by economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
On a monthly basis, retail sales rose 0.49% in April from March.
Industrial production rose 5.6% in April from a year earlier, speeding up from March’s 3.9% increase, but lower than the 11.0% growth expected by surveyed economists.
China’s industrial output fell 0.47% in April from a month earlier, the statistics bureau said.
Fixed-asset investment increased 4.7% in the January-April period, slowing from the 5.1% increase recorded in the first quarter and lower than the 5.3% growth anticipated by economists.
China’s surveyed urban unemployment rate fell to 5.2% in April, compared with 5.3% in March. However, the youth unemployment rate, which covers workers aged 16 to 24 years old, stood at 20.4%, a record high.
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