China’s key economic indicators moderated last month from the previous month, official figures showed yesterday, raising concers over the strength of a rebound in the world’s second-largest economy.
Industrial output rose 6.0 percent year-on-year last month, the National Bureau of Statistics said, down from a 6.8 percent jump in March. Economists had estimated a 6.5 percent increase, according to Bloomberg News.
“Industrial production was lower than expectations, indicating that the stabilization momentum for the economy is not as strong as we imagined,” said Liao Qun (廖群), an economist at Citic Bank International (中信銀行國際) in Hong Kong.
“There was a strong economic rebound in March, so there was a bit of a correction in April,” he said.
Separately, retail sales — an indicator of domestic consumption — rose 10.1 percent on the year last month, the bureau said, weaker than the 10.5 percent gain in March. Fixed-asset investment, a gauge of government spending, rose 10.5 percent in the January to April period, it said.
That was slower than the 10.7 percent rise in the first three months of the year.
Chinese officials said they are willing to accept slower growth to carry out structural reforms to retool the economy.
The People’s Daily newspaper, considered to be the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, on Monday quoted a source as sounding a warning over using credit to drive growth.
China was likely to have an “L-shaped” growth pattern, suggesting it will remain flat, the “authoritative person” said.
The Chinese economy grew 6.9 percent for all of last year, its weakest in a quarter of a century. The government has cut interest rates six times since late 2014 and also lowered reserve requirements — the proportion of funds banks must put aside — to boost the economy.
The central bank yesterday said it would continue to support “stable” economic growth, according to a statement, a day after figures showed bank lending fell sharply last month, as the government refrained from boosting credit amid concerns over growing financial risk.
Other economic figures for last month which have already been released show a mixed picture. Manufacturing activity slowed for the month and both exports and imports dropped, indications of weakness in the economy.
Consumer price inflation was stable at 2.3 percent last month, but the producer price index — which measures prices of goods at the factory gate — fell 3.4 percent, actually its slowest decline in 16 months.
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