MNI 5 THINGS: China Oct IP, FAI rebounded, Retail Sales fell

     BEIJING (MNI) - China's industrial production picked up from September's

three-year-low, with fixed-asset investment (FAI) also rebounding, but retail

sales fell to a 5-month low, according to data released by China's National

Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. Here are five things MNI highlights from the

data:

     - Industrial production growth was reported as 5.9% y/y in October, picking

up from the three-year-low 5.8% recorded in September. In the Jan-Oct period,

production increased 6.4%, unchanged from the previous month. The

faster-than-expected increase was supported by solid growth from high tech

manufacturing including the electric machinery and communication equipment

industries.

     - FAI grew 5.7% in the Jan-Oct period, higher than the 5.5% median in an

MNI survey, continuing to expand from Jan-September's 5.8% gain, continuing to

recover from a series low of 5.3% in Jan-Aug period (low since the data first

compiled in 1992).

     - Property investment continued to slow in October, mainly due to cooling

market demand, rising costs of financing and a series of tightening policies in

the housing market. Property investment gained 9.7% in the first ten months of

2018, slowing down from the 9.9% gain in the first nine months.

     - Retail sales growth fell to 8.6% y/y in October, decreasing from the 9.2%

growth reported in September, coming in below the median of 9.1% forecast in

MNI's analyst survey, partly due to a shift in consumption habits, from retail

stores to e-commerce websites. From January to October, online retail sales

totalled CNY7.054 trillion, increasing 25.5% y/y.

     - The surveyed unemployment rate in October was 4.9% y/y, unchanged on last

month and stable in the middle of the range since it was first recorded in

January. The surveyed unemployment in the 31 big cities was reported even lower,

at 4.7%. New employment in urban areas increased to 12 million for the first ten

months.

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

--MNI Beijing Bureau; tel: +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: flora.guo@marketnews.com

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

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