MNI DATA IMPACT: China Property Investment At 4-Year YTD High

--Jan-Feb Industrial Output Below Forecasts On Holidays

     BEIJING (MNI) - China's industrial output and retail sales remain weak in

the opening months of 2019, but fixed-asset investment (FAI), especially

property investment, saw continued strong demand, extending recent strength,

data released by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday showed.

     Here are five things MNI highlights from the data:

     - FAI grew 6.1% y/y in the first two months of 2019, beating the 5.9%

median in an MNI survey. It was 0.2 percentage points higher than the comparable

growth in 2018.

     - Property investment rose to 11.6% y/y in the Jan-Feb period, continuing

the strength that saw growth of 9.5% through 2018. The YTD data was the highest

since 2014's 10.5% for the same period. A total 72.1% of the investment came in

the residential housing sector.

     - Industrial output grew 5.3% y/y in the Jan-Feb period, just shy of the

5.5% forecast by analysts polled by MNI. The YTD data was the lowest since

2009's Jan-Feb. While the figure would , The NBS said growth would be 6.1% if

excluding the Chinese New Year factor.

     - Retail sales growth was 8.2% y/y in Jan to Feb, in line with the 8.2%

forecast in an MNI survey. This compared with the 9.7% for same period last

year.

     - The surveyed unemployment rate rose to 5.3% y/y in February, lower than

the target of 'around 5.5%'. The surveyed unemployment rate in the 31 big cities

came in at 5%.

--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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