China’s factory output growth at 6-month low

Retail sales stay strong in October

analysts warn that more needs to be done to stop the slowdown.

“Despite some positive signs and policy easing already undertaken, growth is likely to soften more into 2016,” Louis Kuijs, an Oxford Economics analyst said in a note.

“We expect the government to continue to take additional incremental measures to support domestic demand to ensure that growth does not deviate too much from its targets.”

Fixed asset investment, a measure of spending on infrastructure, expanded 10.2 percent year-on-year in the JanuaryOctober period, the NBS said.

But retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, held up well for the month, growing 11.0 percent from a year earlier — the fastest increase since a rise of 11.9 percent in December last year, according to the NBS.

It was also slightly better than the median estimate of a 10.9 percent expansion in the Bloomberg poll.

“Consumption continues to be the bright spot,” Nomura economists said in a research report.

Online retail sales of goods surged 33 percent in the first 10 months of the year from the same period last year and accounted for 10 percent of total retail sales, the NBS said.