AFP,  BEIJING: Growth in China’s industrial production hit a three-month high in May, figures showed Thursday, while expansion in retail sales rebounded from a nine-year low in cautiously positive signs for the world’s second-largest economy.
Industrial output, which measures output at factories, workshops and mines, rose 6.1 per cent year-on-year in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a
statement.
Retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, increased 10.1 per cent in the same month, the NBS said.
The industrial output figure was the highest since a reading of 6.8 per cent
growth in January-February, when the data were released for two months to iron out distortions related to Chinese New Year.
The May increase was also above the 5.9 per cent recorded in April and marginally above the median 6.0 per cent rise in a
forecast of economists by Bloomberg News.
The retail sales result, meanwhile, was just above April’s 10.0 per cent rise, which was a nine-year low.