Pictured are cars ready for export at the Haitong Automobile Terminal warehouse in Taicang Port, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China on August 10, 2024.
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BEIJING — China’s retail sales grew more than expected in July, while industrial production missed forecasts, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.
Retail sales rose 2.7% in July from a year earlier, beating forecasts for 2.6% growth in a Reuters poll.
Industrial production rose 5.1%, below poll forecasts of 5.2%.
Fixed-asset investment rose 3.6% in the first seven months of the year, below the 3.9% growth analysts had forecast. In fixed-asset investment, the drag from real estate worsened, falling 10.2% year-on-year through July, compared with a 10.1% decline through June.
Infrastructure and manufacturing components also slowed in the year to July from June.
The urban unemployment rate rose to 5.2% in July from 5% in June.
“The pains come as old growth drivers are replaced by new ones,” the statistics agency said in the English version of its release, noting “negative impacts” from the external environment and insufficient domestic demand.
Other data for July released in the past two weeks has shown Consumer demand remains sluggish.
China consumer prices CPI rose 0.5% year-on-year, faster than expected, in July, boosted by soaring pork prices. Stripping out food and energy prices, the core CPI rose 0.4%, down from 0.6% in the previous month.
July trade data shows Imports rose faster than expected by 7.2% compared to the same period last year, while export growth of 7% was lower than forecast.
Second-quarter GDP growth was a disappointing 4.7% year-on-year.
However, Beijing has yet to significantly increase its economic stimulus plans beyond Extended equipment return and upgrade policy.
Highly anticipated Third Plenary Session and Politburo policy meetings in July, Chinese authorities affirmed that the country will strive to achieve its annual growth target of around 5%. They also emphasized longer-term goals of developing advanced technology and other “new growth drivers.”
China’s economy is facing challenges not only from the external environment but also from structural transformation — “pain to go through “In the process of promoting high-quality development,” an official from the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s economic planning agency, told reporters earlier this month. That’s according to a CNBC translation of the Mandarin.
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