China January-February industrial output rises 7%, beats expectations

China January-February industrial output news: China's industrial output grew 7.0 per cent year-on-year in the January-February period, data showed on Monday, accelerating from the 6.8 per cent pace seen in December and beating expectations, marking a solid start for 2024 and offering tentative relief to policymakers.

The reading released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) was significantly above expectations for a 5.0 per cent increase in a Reuters poll of analysts.

Retail sales, a gauge of consumption, rose 5.5 per cent in the first two months of the year, slowing from a 7.4 per cent increase in December. Analysts had expected retail sales to grow 5.2 per cent.
Fixed asset investment expanded 4.2 per cent in the two-month period from the same period a year earlier, versus expectations for a 3.2 per cent rise. It grew 3.0 per cent in the whole of 2023.