China retail sales, industrial output, fixed asset investment in May

Chinese retail sales in May have increased at their fastest rate since the end of 2023, the National Bureau of Statistics data showed on Monday, partly helped by prolonged holidays of the Labor Day and Dragon Bateaux.

Retail sales last month jumped 6.4% compared to the previous year, strongly beating analysts’ estimates for growth of 5% in a reuters survey and accelerating Growth of 5.1% in the previous month.

Industrial production growth slowed down at 5.8% over one year In May from 6.1% the previous month. The last reading was slightly lower than analysts’ expectations for an increase of 5.9%.

Investment with fixed active ingredients, reported an up to date, expanded 3.7% this year in May For a year earlier, subcontracting Reuters forecasts for growth of 3.9% and slowing up of 4% in the first four months.

As part of the investment with fixed assets, the contraction of real estate investment has deepened, down 10.7% in the first five months, Government data have shown.

The unemployment rate based on the urban survey in May reached 5.0%, from 5.1% in April at the lowest level since November of last year.

“Retail sales rise has been a surprise,” said the lasting effects of the consumer goods trade program, said Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, adding that the drop in real estate prices could reduce consumers’ feeling.

A Shipping Monday by the NBS have shown that the prices of new houses in the richest level 1 cities continued to decrease, down 1.7% in May a year ago, while those in level 2 and level 3 cities dropped by 3.5% and 4.9%, respectively.

A PRICE PRACE BY Beijing and Washington In mid-May, temporarily relieved the country’s exports, which prompted certain companies to load the alternative markets. The two parties struck a 90 -day truce to reduce most of the three -digit samples added from the goods in the other early April.

Commerce secretary Howard Lunick told CNBC last week That American prices on Chinese imports will remain at their current level of 55%.

China Exports have increased less than expected in MayAlthough expeditions increasingly in the countries of Southeast Asia, European Union and Africa have contributed to offset the sharp drop in goods related to the United States. China exports to the United States have plunged more than 34% compared to a year ago, their strongest drop in February 2020.

The last two months of commercial data have indicated resilience in Chinese exports, according to Goldman Sachs, as they stressed “the difficulty of bilateral prices to significantly reduce total Chinese exports”.

Slow domestic demand has remained a more urgent problem for Chinese decision -makers. Consumer prices experienced a drop in annual shift For four consecutive months, sampling 0.1% in May. Deflation in factory or producers’ prices also deepened, down 3.3% compared to a year ago.

However, Beijing may feel less emergency in the deployment of additional relaxation stages, because exports seem more resilient than expected and that GDP growth is on the right track to exceed 5% in the first half, said Goldman.