MNI 5 THINGS: China Sees Strong Growth In Jan-Feb

     BEIJING (MNI) - China's National Bureau of Statistics released data on

industrial output, fixed-asset investment, property investment and retail sales

for January and February. The data shows robust growth of the economy - better

than market expectations.

     Here are five things MNI concluded:

     - Industrial output rose 7.2% y/y during the January-February period in

2018, higher than 6.2% in December last year and 6.3% during same period last

year, and beating market expectations of 6.2%, as reflected in the MNI survey.

Industrial output grew 0.57% m/m in the Jan-Feb period. The data indicates room

for strong industrial production this year. 

     - Fixed-asset investment increased 7.9% y/y during the Jan-Feb period in

2018, higher than 7.2% in 2017 while lower than 8.9% during same period last

year; and much higher than market expectations of 7.0%. Fixed asset investment

grew 0.61% m/m over Jan-Feb 2018. Stronger-than-expected industrial output and

fixed asset investment data will likely lead to an upward shift in expectations

for China's economic growth this year. 

     - Property investment saw significant y/y growth of 9.9%, up from 7.0%

growth over all of 2017, and the highest since the first two months of 2015,

when it was 10.4%. It was supported by a 12.3% increase in investment in

residential house development, compared with a 9.4% increase over 2017. Property

sales dropped 3.6 percentage points to 4.1% in the first two months. 

     - Infrastructure investment increased 16.1% during the Jan-Feb period,

which is high - but lower than 19.0% over all of last year and 27.3% during the

same period last year. Signs suggest that there will not be a significant drop

in infrastructure investment from last year. 

     - Retail sales rose by 9.7% y/y, lower than the 9.8% expectation in a MNI

survey. Rebounding by 0.3 percentage point from December, the growth resulted in

a total of CNY6.1082 trillion in sales. The growth was also 0.2 percentage point

faster than the rate recorded in the same period last year. The growth in retail

sales growth was supported by acceleration of 0.4 percentage point in goods

sales growth, while sales in restaurant services remained as flat as in

December. Online sales accelerated to 37.3%, from average growth of 32.2% last

year. 

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

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86-10-8532-5998; email: beijing@marketnews.com

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 10 85325998; email: he.wei@marketnews.com

[TOPICS: M$A$$$,M$Q$$$]