BEIJING, May 11: China’s factory output rose by 9.3 percent in April compared with March’s 11.9 percent, sharply underperforming expectations as cooling demand at home and abroad dragged on production growth, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected industrial production growth to stabilise at 12.0 percent in April from a year earlier.
Continued difficulty in access to loans has led to a softening in fixed-asset investment, which increased 20.2 percent in the January-April period from a year earlier, compared with an annual rise of 20.9 percent in the first three months.
Retail sales also underperformed market expectations for an annual growth of 15.2 percent, rising instead by 14.2 percent in April from a year earlier.
The data confirms expectations that the world’s No. 2 economy is losing steam. But the slowdown has been orderly, as desired by Beijing to make room for reforms that encourage domestic consumption while cutting China’s dependence on exports and pollution-belching industries.
(AGENCIES)
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