China November industrial output up 7.2% on-year: govt

[BEIJING] China's industrial production, which measures output at factories, workshops and mines in the world's second-largest economy, rose 7.2 per cent year-on-year in November, the government said Friday.

Retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, increased 11.7 per cent in the same month, the National Bureau of Statistics said, while fixed asset investment, a measure of government spending on infrastructure, expanded 15.8 per cent on-year in the first 11 months.

The industrial output figure missed market expectations of 7.5 per cent, according to Dow Jones Newswires, but retail sales came in just ahead of the forecast 11.6 per cent, while fixed-asset investment matched predictions.

China's economy expanded 7.3 per cent in the third quarter, worse than the 7.5 per cent in the previous three months and the slowest since 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis.

The data follow other figures suggesting a softening in Chinese growth. On Monday, official figures showed that November export growth slowed sharply while imports fell, resulting in a record monthly trade surplus.

The NBS said on Wednesday that China's consumer price index (CPI), a key gauge of inflation, rose 1.4 per cent, a five-year low, while the producer price index (PPI), a measure of costs for goods at the factory gate and a leading indicator of the trend for CPI - fell 2.7 per cent year-on-year, the worst reading in 17 months.

AFP