China industrial output growth hits 17-month high – gov’t

Business men walk past the local government’s slogan in Chinese reading: “China My Dream” in Shanghai, China’s financial hub. AP FILE PHOTO

BEIJING – China’s industrial production rose 10.4 percent in August year-on-year, the government announced Tuesday, its fastest increase for more than a year in another positive sign for the world’s second-largest economy.

The figure showed the most rapid increase in industrial production, a key indicator which measures output at factories, workshops and mines, since March 2012.

The finding was ahead of market expectations, with the median forecast in a poll of 11 economists by Dow Jones Newswires predicting a rise of 9.9 percent.

Output also rose 9.5 percent over the first eight months of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

Retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, rose 13.4 percent in August compared with the same month last year, it said, just ahead of expectations of 13.2 percent in the same poll.

They increased 12.8 percent in the first eight months of the year, the NBS added.

Fixed asset investment, a measure of government spending on infrastructure, increased 20.3 percent during the first eight months of this year compared with the same period in 2012, the NBS said. The figure was a fraction ahead of expectations of 20.2 percent.