China's industrial output growth quickens in May but retail sales and investment contract

China’s industrial output rose 4.5 percent in May from a year earlier, picking up from 4.1 percent growth recorded in April, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Tuesday.

The reading beat expectations of a 4.3 percent increase in a Reuters poll.

Retail sales, a key gauge of consumption, shrank 0.6 percent last month, reversing April’s 0.2 percent rise and missing the estimated 0 percent. It marked the first monthly fall since December 2022.

Fixed-asset investment fell 4.1 percent in the first five months of 2026, following a 1.6 percent contraction in the January-April period. Economists had expected a 2 percent fall.

Reuters

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