Shanghai Bund skyline panorama
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China’s economy lost momentum in August, with growth slowing across the board as weak domestic demand persisted and Beijing’s campaign against industrial overcapacity curbed output.
Retail sales last month rose 3.4% from a year earlier, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Monday, missing analysts’ estimates for a 3.9% growth in a Reuters poll and slowing from July’s 3.7% growth.
Industrial output growth slowed to 5.2% in August, compared to the 5.7% jump in July, marking its weakest level since August 2024, according to LSEG data. Economists had expected the data to be unchanged from the previous month.
Fixed-asset investment, reported on a year-to-date basis, expanded just 0.5%, a sharp slowdown from the 1.6% expansion in the January to July period, and undershooting economists’ forecasts for a 1.4% growth.
Within that segment, the contraction in real estate investment worsened, slumping 12.9% in the first eight months, government data showed.
China’s survey-based urban unemployment rate in August came in at 5.3%, edging higher from 5.2% in the prior month. The statistics bureau attributed the rise in the jobless rate to the graduation season.
“We should be aware that there are many unstable and uncertain factors in (the) external environment, and national economic development is still confronted with multiple risks and challenges,” the statistics bureau said in an English-language release.
“We must fully implement macro policies, focus on keeping employment, businesses, market…expectations stable, deepen reform and opening up and innovation, so as to foster steady and healthy economic development.”
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