China April industrial output rises 5.6%, retail sales jump 18.4%; below expectations

China's industrial output grew 5.6 per cent in April from a year earlier, official data showed on Tuesday, missing expectations by a large margin but accelerating from a 3.9 per cent gain seen in March.

The data, released by the National Bureau of Statistics, lagged a 10.9 per cent increase seen in a Reuters poll of analysts but it was the quickest growth since September 2022, largely due to the recoil effect from the contraction suffered last April when the commercial hub Shanghai was under stringent COVID lockdown.

Retail sales jumped 18.4 per cent, missing forecasts for a 21.0 per cent increase. It was significantly faster than the 10.6 per cent increase in March and marked the quickest growth since March 2021.

Fixed asset investment expanded 4.7 per cent in the first four months of 2023 from the same period a year earlier, versus expectations for a 5.5 per cent rise. It grew 5.1 per cent in the January-March period.