Costco’s third store in Mainland China began pilot operations on March 10, 2023, in Shanghai’s Pudong district.
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BEIJING — China on Wednesday reported retail sales for the first two months of the year were only in line with expectations, while property investment continued to decline.
Industrial production in the January-February period rose 2.4%, lower than the 2.6% expected in a Reuters poll.
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Retail sales rose 3.5%, in line with expectations. Most categories in retail sales increased, but high-value items such as cars and home appliances saw sales decline. Online merchandise retail sales grew 5.3% in the first two months of the year from a year ago.
Fixed asset investment rose 5.5%, beating expectations for 4.4% growth.
But within that category, investment in real estate fell 5.7% in January and February from a year ago. That comes after real estate investment fell 10% for the whole of last year. Infrastructure investment and manufacturing increased at a slower rate in the first two months of the year than in 2022.
The Bureau of Statistics said the unemployment rate in cities reached 5.6% in February, 0.1 percentage points higher than in January. The data showed the unemployment rate for youth aged 16 to 24 years old remains at a consistently high level at 18.1%.
The data releases combine January and February figures – as is customary for China’s statistics bureau – to avoid deviations from the Lunar New Year. The biggest holiday of the year in China marks a travel period that lasts more than a month and can fall on one of two months depending on the year.
The figures mark the first full month since China ended strict control measures for Covid in early December.
Preliminary and anecdotal data suggest that tourism and restaurant dining have recovered, but Overall consumer spending remains warm. Meanwhile, business surveys indicate a sudden increase in production.
“The external environment is even more complicated, insufficient demand is still prominent and the foundation for economic recovery is still not solid,” China’s National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.
The office called for strengthening market confidence and achieving “reasonable growth in volume”.
The Chinese government this month announced a growth target of about 5%, of which New Prime Minister Li Qiang was warned It won’t be easy for the country to achieve.
Zhou Hao at Guotai Junan said the data reflects “stabilizing dynamics rather than accelerating, which also suggests that strong policy support is needed to unleash growth potential”.
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