09/14/2024 – 12:44
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s industrial output in August rose 4.5% from the same month a year earlier, the slowest growth since March, underscoring weakening domestic demand that could prompt fresh measures to stimulate the economy.
In July, growth had been 5.1%.
Official data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Saturday missed expectations for 4.8 percent growth in August, according to a Reuters poll of 37 analysts.
Retail sales, a gauge of consumption, rose 2.1% in August, slowing from a 2.7% increase in July despite a summer travel spike. Analysts had expected retail sales, which have been anemic all year, to grow 2.5%.
Fixed-asset investment rose 3.4% in the first eight months of 2024 from the same period a year earlier, compared with an expected expansion of 3.5%. It grew 3.6% during the January-July period.
(Reporting by Ethan Wang, Kevin Yao and Ellen Zhang)
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