China factory output topped expectations

BEIJING: Output by Chinese factories and workshops topped expectations in May, but officials warned on Wednesday of lingering “unstable and uncertain factors” at home and abroad that could pose a threat to the Asian giant.

The reading on industrial production, a key engine of growth, comes as Beijing wrestles with huge debt and excess capacity left over from massive governmentbacked infrastructure spending at the height of the global financial crisis.

There have been renewed concerns about the strength of the world’s numbertwo economy following a mixed bag of indicators in recent months and US President Donald Trump’s protectionist rhetoric.

But forecast-beating trade figures last week and signs of a pick-up in the global outlook have raised hopes that China will be able to sustain its momentum.

The economy maintained “moderate but steady and sound” development in May”, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) spokeswoman Liu Aihua said in a statement.

But she warned “unstable and uncertain factors still exist both domestically and externally”.

Output rose 6.5 per cent from a year ago, the NBS said, unchanged from the previous month and slightly higher than forecasts of 6.4 per cent in a Bloomberg News poll of economists. Fixed-asset investment excluding rural areas — which measures spending on real estate, roads and bridges — slowed to 8.6 per cent in the first five months of the year from 8.9 per cent in January-April. — AFP