Solid Growth

China’s economic growth momentum held up in April despite slowing fixed assets investment and retail sales growth, with analysts expecting the nation’s policy stance to remain unchanged in the coming months.

Industrial output rose 7 percent year on year in April, 1 percentage point higher than in March and 0.5 of a percentage point higher than a year ago, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on May 15.

The unemployment rate in urban areas was 4.9 percent, 0.2 of a percentage point lower than in March and 0.1 of a percentage point lower than a year ago.

China also continued to make headway in its supply-side structural reform, the bureau said. For example, the asset-liability ratio of major enterprises was 56.4 percent at the end of March, 0.8 of a percentage point lower than a year ago.

However, fixed assets investment growth fell to 7 percent for the January-April period from 7.5 percent in the first three months. Retail sales grew 9.4 percent in April, down from 11.1 percent in March.

Property development investment, which is a major driver of overall economic growth, increased 10.3 percent in the first four months of this year, 0.1 of a percentage point lower than the first quarter.

“China maintained an overall trend of stable and improving growth in April,” said NBS spokeswoman Liu Aihua. “It is capable of maintaining such a trend in the medium and long term.”

“Regulatory tightening in China’s financial system is starting to drag on growth,” said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC Holdings Plc in Hong Kong.