Pictured here is a shopping mall in Hangzhou, China, on September 9, 2024.
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BEIJING – China’s retail sales, industrial production and urban investment in August all grew more slowly than expected, according to National Bureau of Statistics data released Saturday.
Retail sales rose 2.1% in August from a year ago, missing expectations of 2.5% among economists polled by Reuters. That was also slower than the 2.7% increase in July.
Industrial production rose 4.5% in August from a year ago, missing the 4.8% growth forecast by Reuters. That also marked a slowdown from the 5.1% increase in July.
Fixed asset investment rose 3.4% for the January to August period, slower than the 3.5% growth forecast.
The city’s unemployment rate was 5.3% in August, up from 5.2% in July.
Among fixed asset investment, infrastructure and manufacturing slowed in growth on a year-to-date basis in August, compared to July. Investment in real estate fell 10.2% for the year to August, the same rate of decline in July.
National Bureau of Statistics spokesperson Liu Aihua attributed the rise in unemployment to the impact of the graduation season. But he says stabilizing employment will require more work.
This year, the statistics bureau has released the unemployment rate for people aged 16 to 24 who are not in school a few days after the broader unemployment release. The youth unemployment rate in July was 17.1%.
“We need to understand that the negative impact of changes in the external environment is increasing,” the bureau said in an English-language statement. A “continuous economic recovery is still faced with various difficulties and challenges.”
This weekend, Saturday is a working day in China instead of a holiday on Monday. The country is set to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Cake Festival, from Sunday to Tuesday. The next and last public holiday in China this year falls in early October.
Growth in the world’s second-largest economy slowed after recovering from Covid-19. Policymakers have yet to announce large-scale stimulus, while acknowledging that domestic demand is insufficient.
Other data released in the past week have underlined the continued weakness in consumption.
Imports rose just 0.5% in August from a year ago, customs data showed, missing expectations. Exports rose 8.7%, beating expectations.
Beijing’s consumer price index for August also disappointed analysts’ expectations with a 0.6% increase from a year ago.