China’s Industrial Production, Retail Sales Beat Expectations

The Chinese economy seems to be posting a great recovery in the wake of the coronavirus crisis that brought it to a shutdown early last year. The latest figures for industrial production and retail sales across the world’s second largest economy have registered a sharp increase, bolstering investor confidence about the outlook for the trade leader.

China’s industrial production surged by 35.1% YoY during January and February, a sharp spike in comparison with December’s 7.3% increase. The data came in stronger than economists’ expectations, which were for a rise by 30% for the period instead.

In addition, Chinese retail sales also posted a strong increase, rising by 33.8% YoY in the first two months of the year. The pace of growth was better than in December when retail sales were up by 4.6% and even beat economists’ forecast for a rise by 32% instead.

However, the unemployment rate across China ticked higher during January and February, coming in at 5.5% against the previous month’s 5.2% reading. Economists have cautioned that the real unemployment figures could be much higher than the government data due to the high number of workers that are employed unofficially and unaccounted for.