China's industrial output growth slips to 5.4% y-o-y in Jan-Feb: govt

[BEIJING] China's industrial production is growing at its slowest rate since the global financial crisis, the government said Saturday.

The measure, which gauges output at factories, workshops and mines in the world's second-largest economy, rose 5.4 per cent year-on-year in January and February.

The figures were the weakest since Nov 2008, during the global financial crisis.

Retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, increased 10.2 per cent in the same period, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Fixed-asset investment, a measure of mainly government spending on infrastructure, expanded 10.2 per cent on-year for the first two months of 2016.

Results fell short of economists' expectations, according to a survey by Bloomberg News, which predicted a year-on-year increase in retail sales of 10.9 per cent, while industrial production was projected to expand 5.6 per cent.

AFP