China’s Jan-Feb industrial output, investment stronger than expected
Retail sales rise 9.7 pct, slightly missing expectations
BEIJING, March 14, (RTRS): China’s industrial output expanded faster than expected at the start of the year, suggesting the world’s second-biggest economy has sustained solid momentum despite a crackdown on polluting industries and a campaign to reduce risks in the financial system.
Fixed asset investment also handily beat forecasts, while retail sales growth improved from December but came in slightly below expectations for the first two months of the year.
Industrial output rose 7.2 percent in the first two months this year from the same period a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday, surpassing analysts’ estimates for a rise of 6.1 percent and picking up sharply from 6.2 percent in December.
However, data from China early in the year is typically treated with caution due to distortions caused by the timing of the week-long Lunar New Year celebrations, which fell in late January 2017 but started in mid-February this year.
China’s fixed-asset investment growth unexpectedly picked up to 7.9 percent in January-February. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted it would cool to 7.0 percent from a 7.2 percent pace in all of 2017.
Private sector fixed-asset investment rose 8.1 percent, compared with an increase of 6.0 percent in 2017. Private investment accounts for about 60 percent of overall investment in China.
Retail sales rose 9.7 percent, slightly missing expectations of 9.8 percent growth but up from 9.4 percent in December.
Premier Li Keqiang said last week China aims to expand its economy by around 6.5 percent this year, the same target that it handily beat in 2017 thanks in part to massive government infrastructure spending and record bank lending.
But comments by top officials at China’s parliament in the past week suggested that Beijing will be more cautious about spending this year while it focuses on reducing the risks from a rapid build-up in debt.