China April industrial output rises 5.6%, retail sales jump 18.4%; below expectations

BEIJING  – China’s industrial output grew 5.6 percent in April from a year earlier, official data showed on Tuesday, missing expectations by a large margin but accelerating from a 3.9- percent gain seen in March.

The data, released by the National Bureau of Statistics, lagged a 10.9- percent increase seen in a Reuters poll of analysts but it was the quickest growth since September 2022, largely due to the recoil effect from the contraction suffered last April when the commercial hub Shanghai was under stringent COVID lockdown.

Retail sales jumped 18.4 percent, missing forecasts for a 21- percent increase. It was significantly faster than the 10.6-percent increase in March and marked the quickest growth since March 2021.

Fixed asset investment expanded 4.7 percent in the first four months of 2023 from the same period a year earlier, versus expectations for a 5.5- percent rise. It grew 5.1 percent in the January-March period.