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Shoppers standing by decorations for the upcoming festivals in Beijing. Chinese inflation slowed to three percent in November.
BEIJING: China’s industrial production growth slowed in November but retail sales expanded at a faster pace, official figures showed yesterday, suggesting a mixed picture for the world’s second-largest economy.
Industrial output, which measures production at factories, workshops and mines, rose 10 percent in November year-on-year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced.
That was a slowdown from the 10.3 percent expansion recorded in October, but matched the median forecast of 11 economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.
Retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, rose 13.7 percent in November from the year before — an acceleration from the 13.3 percent registered in October.
“Today’s data could be either market neutral or slightly positive,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch economists Lu Ting, Zhi Xiaojia and others wrote in a report.
They added the figures might raise expectations for stronger growth in the current fourth quarter, while “the structure of the economy seems to be improved towards consumption”.
The data for November came after strong export and benign inflation figures for the month as China’s economy shows signs of strength after a slump in the first half of the year.
Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 7.8 percent in July-September, snapping a two-quarter slowdown, with data for the final three months of the year so far suggesting a steady outlook.
Figures on Monday showed Chinese inflation slowed to three percent in November, after two months of acceleration in consumer prices, well under the government’s target for the year of 3.5 percent.
“With a muted inflation and a pace of GDP growth in line with China’s potential, we expect the government to maintain neutral monetary and fiscal policies in the next couple of quarters while increasing their efforts on drafting and carrying out structural reforms,” the Bank of America Merrill Lynch economists wrote.
China’s ruling party vowed last month to pursue a range of reforms, including encouraging a bigger role for the private sector, further interest rate liberalisation and loosened currency controls.
On Sunday, the General Administration of Customs said exports accelerated 12.7 percent year-on-year in November while import growth weakened, fuelling the country’s biggest trade surplus in nearly five years.
But the strong export figure led some economists to wonder whether companies had returned to over-invoicing their overseas sales to camouflage capital flows.
AFP
