China Industrial production growth slows in May Retail spending growth beats market expectations

China's industrial production slowed in May and retail spending rose more than expected, suggesting the economic recovery may be slightly less unbalanced.

Industrial production in China rose 5.6 per cent in May from a year earlier, slowing from 6.7 per cent growth in April, according to data released Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics, Bloomberg and Reuters reported. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey was 6.2 percent, while a Reuters poll predicted 6 percent.

Retail sales rose 3.7 per cent in May from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, up from 2.3 per cent in April and beating analysts' estimates of 3 per cent growth.

Data released Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China's housing prices fell in May from a month earlier and slightly more sharply from a year earlier. The price of new residential buildings in China's first-tier cities fell 0.7% month-on-month in May, 0.1 percentage points more than the previous month. The price of new residential buildings in China's first-tier cities fell 3.2 per cent in May from a year earlier, 0.7 percentage points faster than the previous month.

Liu Aihua, director of the General Statistics Department of the National Economy of China's National Bureau of Statistics, said at a press conference Monday that China's economy in May was stable on the whole, with major indicators picking up and new drivers growing rapidly. However, we must also see that the current external environment is complex and severe, effective domestic demand is still insufficient, and the sustained recovery of the economy still faces many difficulties and challenges.

She said that as the economy continued to pick up, China's labor market activity increased in May, and the employment situation was generally stable. The surveyed urban unemployment rate was 5% in May, unchanged from the previous month. Compared with the same period last year, it was down 0.2 percentage points.

First of all, the employment situation in China's big cities continues to improve,' Mr. Liu said. The surveyed unemployment rate in 31 major cities was 4.9 percent in May, down 0.1 percentage points from the previous month and 0.6 percentage points from a year earlier. Second, the employment of migrant workers continued to improve. The unemployment rate of migrant workers in May was 4.7 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous month and down 0.7 percentage points year-on-year.

She stressed that driven by the development of new quality productivity in accordance with local conditions, new industries, new forms of business and new models will create more new industries and new jobs, and employment space will continue to expand. At the same time, the package of policies to stabilize employment and promote employment has continued to play its role, and there is a solid foundation and conditions for promoting high-quality full employment.