MNI 5 THINGS: Industrial Output Strong, Retail Sales Lethargic

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

the country's quarterly economic data. Here are five things MNI highlights.

     - Industrial output rose 7.0% y/y in April, well above the market

expectation of 6.5% as showed in MNI survey, higher than 6.0% y/y in March, and

6.5% in April 2017. On a month-to-month basis, it grew 0.61%, faster than 0.35%

registered in March. Although the figure is encouraging, we suspect seasonal

factors have played an important role as March production was slow this year. 

- Fixed-asset investment increased 7.0% y/y during Jan-Apr period, falling short

of 7.4% projected by the MNI survey. It was also slower than 7.5% in Jan-Mar and

8.9% Jan-Apr last year. Infrastructure investment increased 12.4% y/y during

Jan-Apr period, lower than 13.0% recorded during Jan-Mar period and much lower

than the 23.3% growth seen Jan-Apr last year.

     - Property investment rose 10.3% year-to-date in April. Though sliding from

the 10.4% growth in January-March period, it's the second highest figure since

the 10.5% ytd growth in December 2014. April property investment was mainly

buoyed by strong growth of the residential property segment while commercial

property investment slowed. By contrast, growth of property sales dropped

significantly on the government's policy controls, to 1.3% from 3.6%.

     - Retail sales rose 9.4% year-over-year in April, much lower than the

median of 10.1% in a MNI survey where 18 forecasters participated. The monthly

growth was the lowest since December when the gain was also 9.4%, compared with

a 10.1% growth in March. In April, retail sales amounted to CNY28,542.

Decelerations in growth in both restaurant sales and goods sales resulted in the

slowdown.

     - Surveyed urban unemployment data was 4.9% in April, lower than 5.1%

recorded in March, and lower than 5.0% last April. 

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

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

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