Industrial production in China increases 8.8 % year-on-year in May
Shanghai, China, Jun 16 (EFE).- Industrial production in China increased 8.8 percent year-on-year in May, an increase below the 9.8 percent in April, slightly below analysts’ expectations, according to data offered Wednesday by the National Statistics Office.
Among the three main categories in which the office divides the indicator, the progress of the electricity, thermal energy, gas and water production and supply industries stands out, with 11 percent more than in the same month of 2020.
For its part, manufacturing advanced 9 percent year-on-year and mining did so 3.2 percent.
Of the 41 industrial subsectors analyzed, 36 experienced a year-on-year increase in their activity in May.
Among them, the production of electric vehicles (+166.3 percent), industrial robots (+50.1 percent) and integrated circuits (+37.6 percent) stand out.
The office also released other indicators today such as retail sales, key data to measure the demand of Chinese consumers in the context of the post-pandemic recovery, already under apparent control in the country.
This meter advanced 12.4 percent year-on-year, somewhat lower than the 17.7 percent in April and 34.2 percent in March, although it must be taken into account that the confinements during the worst months of the pandemic — which in China concentrated in the first quarter of 2020 — seriously affected demand at the time, generating a distortion in the comparative base.
On the other hand, investment in fixed assets increased by 15.4 percent in the first five months of the year.
Another of the indicators published Wednesday was the urban unemployment rate, which fell again from 5.1 percent in the previous month to 5 percent in May, according to the office.
The organization speaks of a “stable recovery” of the national economy, although it continues to warn of the uncertainty derived from the reactivation of the world economy and the advance of the pandemic at the international level.
These factors are added to the fact that the office does not yet consider the foundations of the economic recovery in China “consolidated”. EFE
vec/lds
