Youth unemployment eases

China's youth unemployment rate inched down by 0.6 percentage points to 14.7 percent in April amid an economic recovery.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed the jobless rate among people aged 16 to 24 - excluding students - declined from March's 15.3 percent. However, it was still three times the overall unemployment rate of 5 percent in April.

Meanwhile, the National Development and Reform Commission said trade-in subsidies announced by some home appliance manufacturers and automakers had exceeded 15 billion yuan (HK$16.2 billion), amid Beijing has been striving to boost domestic consumption.

The state economic planner also said the 1 trillion yuan of special Treasury bills issued last year have been allocated to local government projects and over 70 percent of them have begun construction.

KPMG expects China's second-quarter economic growth to benefit from the low base one year ago, but warns that the property crisis, local government investments and weak global demand will keep threatening the pace of recovery in the long run.

Staff reporter