China's Nov factory growth unexpectedly picks up despite pollution crackdown

Beijing

GROWTH in China's manufacturing sector unexpectedly picked up in November, despite a crackdown on air pollution and a cooling property market that have been widely expected to weigh on the world's second-largest economy.

The upbeat data should help ease concerns, for now, that Beijing's campaign to curb excess risk in the financial sector and its punishing war on smog could lead to a sharper-than-expected slowdown in China's economy.