China’s retail sales unexpectedly fell in July from a year ago,while the comeback in factory output was slower than forecast amid signs the recovery in the remains fragile.
In the second quarter, the Chinese economy grew by 3.2 percent from a year earlier, reversing a 6.8-percent decline in the first quarter – the first contraction since at least 1992 when official quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) records started, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics. In the first half of 2020, the economy contracted by 1.6 percent year-on-year.
In the second quarter, retail sales of consumer goods fell by 3.9 percent on-year. In the first half, retail sales of consumer goods fell by 11.4 percent year on year to 17.23 trillion yuan.
In June, retail sales dropped by 1.8 percent from the same period last year to 3.35 trillion yuan, narrowing by 1 percentage point from May. Retail sales in rural areas dropped by 1.2 percent last month, while that in urban areas fell by 2 percent.
Industrial output grew by 4.8 percent in July from a year earlier, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed today, in line with June’s growth and missing analysts forecast for a 5.1 percent rise.
Retail sales dropped by 1.1 percent on year, worse than a predicted 0.1 percent rise and compared with a 1.8 percent drop in June. Sales fell for the seventh straight month as consumer demand remained sluggish despite strict coronavirus containment measures easing.
On a month-on-month basis, industrial output rose 0.98 percent.
In July, output by the manufacturing industry expanded 6 percent year-on-year. Output of industries in the production and supply of electricity, thermal power, gas and water reported a year-on-year increase of 1.7 percent, while in the mining sector output fell by 2.6 percent.
In the first seven months, industrial output fell by 0.4 percent year-on-year, with the rate narrowing by 0.9 percentage points from January-June.
As the mainland coronavirus outbreak raged acoss provinces killing thousands of people, having emerged from Wuhan in December, industrial output from January to February shrank by 13.5 percent. It was the weakest reading since the early 1990s. But, the output of medical supplies and daily necessities gained. The output of face masks and fermented alcohol surged by 127.5 percent and 15.6 percent, while that of frozen meat and instant noodles grew by13.5 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively.-Agencies/state media
