BEIJING: China’s business activities were mixed in October, as retail sales grew at the slowest pace in five months, while growth in industrial output and investment accelerated.
Retail sales in China rose 8.6% in October from a year earlier, slowing from a 9.2% on-year gain in September, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. October’s rise missed a median forecast for 9.2% growth from a Wall Street Journal poll of 19 economists.
Value-added industrial output in China rose 5.9% in October from a year earlier, accelerating slightly from a 5.8% on-year increase in September and beating economists’ median forecast for 5.7% growth.
Fixed-asset investment outside Chinese rural households climbed 5.7% in the January-October period from a year earlier. It was faster than the 5.4% increase recorded in the January-October period. Growth for the closely watched indicator of construction activity exceeded economists’ median forecast for a 5.5% gain.
Separately, the unemployment rate, based on an official survey in China’s large cities, stood at 4.9% in October, the same as September, the statistics bureau said.
