China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported today that retail sales rose 6.7% year-on-year in February. This was stronger than the 3% increase expected by analysts.
According to the NBS, retail sales increased for most items, including petroleum products, gold, silver, and precious stones, with only furniture sales declining.
In the February period, industrial production in China rose by 7.5%, while fixed-asset investment increased by 12.2%.
In China, the unemployment rate rose to 5.5% in February, unchanged from the same period a year earlier.
“The Chinese economy has continued to recover. The demand for production is expanding rapidly while employment and prices remained stable. In addition, new economic drivers continue to make good progress and high-quality developments are progressing as well,”
NBS said in a statement.
The Chinese government had previously set a target of 5.5% for Chinese GDP in 2022, a sharp decline from the 8.1% growth in 2021.
“A comprehensive analysis of evolving dynamics at home and abroad indicates that this year our country will encounter many more risks and challenges, and we must keep pushing to overcome them. The harder things get, the more confident we must be, and the more solid steps we must take to deliver outcomes,”
said Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.