China’s economic activity improved last month as Beijing eased COVID-19 control measures to support growth, according to official data released Wednesday.
Industrial production rose 0.7% in May from a year earlier, improving from a 2.9% decline in April and better than the 1% drop expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
Retail sales, a key gauge of Chinese consumption, fell 6.7%, compared with April’s 11.1% drop, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The reading was better than the 6.9% decline expected by economists surveyed.
China’s fixed-asset investment rose 6.2% in the January-May period, slowing from the 6.8% pace recorded in the first four months of the year, the statistics bureau said. The polled economists expected the FAI to increase 6.1% in the first five months.
China’s urban surveyed unemployment rate fell to 5.9% in May, compared with a two-year-high of 6.1% in April.