MNI DATA IMPACT: China Apr Ind Activities First Turns Positive

     BEIJING (MNI) - China's consumption and investment continued to pick up in

April after the recovery shown in March, with industrial activity shaking off

negative growth for the first time this year. 

     The improvement in the April indicators was a compensatory recovery as the

virus-hit economy has not returned to the normal level of the same period last

year. Accumulated gains for the first four months were still in the declining

range, said Liu Aihua, spokeswoman of the National Bureau of Statistics at a

data release briefing on Friday.

     Here are some of the data highlights: 

     - Industrial production grew 3.9% y/y in April, reversing the 1.1% lost in

March and outpacing the projected 1.8% gain.

     - Retail sales fell 7.5% y/y, recovering from the 15.8% slump in March, but

the result was still the third drop on record. This was basically in line with

the -7% projection. 

     - Fixed-asset Investment tumbled -10.3% in the first four months, picking

up moderately from the -16.1% decline in Q1 but weaker than the -9.7%

projection. This was the third lowest level in history and was partly due to the

fall in manufacturing investment, which fell -18.8% y/y after the -25.2% slump

in Q1.

     - Infrastructure investment growth recovered to -11.8% y/y in the Jan-April

period from the -19.7% plunge in Q1. Meanwhile, property investment growth

rebounded to -3.3% y/y from the previous -7.7%.

     - Registered urban unemployment rose to 6.0% in April from March's 5.9%.

The rate in 31 major cities also edged up 0.1 percentage point to 5.8% from the

previous month.

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

--MNI Sydney Bureau; +61 405322399; email: lachlan.colquhoun.ext@marketnews.com

[TOPICS: MAQDS$,MAUDR$,MAUDS$,M$A$$$,M$Q$$$,M$U$$$]