MNI 5 THINGS: China Nov Retail Sales lowest ever, IP 10-yr low

     BEIJING (MNI) - China data threw up a mixed bag Friday, with retail sales

dipping to a record low in November, industrial production hitting a ten-year

low, but fixed-asset investment (FAI) expanding, statistics released by China's

National Bureau of Statistics showed.

     Here are five things MNI highlights from the data:

     - Retail sales growth fell to a historical low of 8.1% y/y in November,

down from the 8.6% growth reported in October, coming in below the median of

9.0% forecast in MNI's analyst survey. The dip was partly due to a shift in

shopping habits, from retail stores to e-commerce websites. From January to

November, online retail sales totalled CNY 8.069 trillion, increasing 24.1% y/y.

     - Industrial production growth slipped to 5.4% y/y in November, hitting a

ten-year low. In the Jan-Nov period, production increased 6.3%, decelerating

from October's 6.4%. 

     - FAI grew 5.9% in the Jan-Nov period, higher than the 5.8% median in an

MNI survey, continuing to expand for the fourth consecutive month, and from 5.7%

in the Jan-Oct period.

     - Property investment grew 9.7% y/y in the first eleven months of 2018,

flat from the gain seen in the first ten months.  Infrastructure investment

growth also stayed flat from the Jan-Oct period, recorded 3.7%.

     - The surveyed unemployment rate in November was 4.8% y/y, decreasing 0.1

percentage point from October, marking a five-month low. The surveyed

unemployment in the 31 big cities was even lower, at 4.7%. New employment in

urban areas increased to 12.93 million for the first eleven months of the year.

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: wanxia.lin@marketnews.com

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com

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