China’s industrial output experienced “steady” growth in November, according to official data cited by Xinhua. Up 5.4 percent year-on-year, last month’s performance narrowly beat a Reuters poll’s expectation of 5.3 percent.
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) spokesperson Fu Linghui told media that the positive result was driven by large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-in programmes.
In NBS parlance, industrial output refers to the activity of enterprises turning over at least 20 million yuan (about US$2.8 million) per year.
The highest performing sector was equipment manufacturing, contributing to almost half of the country’s total industrial output. It was up 7.6 percent compared with November 2023.
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High-tech manufacturing also did well overall, growing by 7.8 percent year-on-year last month. Specifically, production of new energy vehicles, industrial robots and integrated circuit products surged 51.1 percent, 29.3 percent, and 8.7 percent last month, respectively.
Month-on-month, industrial output inched up by 0.46 percent in November. During the January-November period, it rose 5.8 percent year-on-year.
Retail sales in November, meanwhile, fell to a three-month low of 3 percent, Reuters reported, down from October’s 4.8 percent and below analyst’s predictions of 4.6 percent.
Xu Tianchen, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, noted that consumer demand in the mainland was “still very reliant on government subsidies.” But he also said that November’s sluggish growth was likely due to the early start of the “Double 11” shopping festival, which front-loaded sales to October.
