Chinese Industrial Output Growth Just 4.4%, Slowest in 17 years, India Still Ahead
Employees work in a factory of SANY Heavy Industry Co, in Changsha, capital of Central China’s Hunan Province.
Industrial output from Chinese factories further slowed in August, registering growth of 4.4 percent, revealing continue downward pressures amid the China-US trade war which has been raging for more than 16 months.
China’s industrial output grew just 4.4 percent year on year in August, slowest in 17 years 0.4 percentage point slower than July, slower than expected, according to data published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.
Retail sales grew 7.5 percent year on year to 3,389.6 billion yuan ($479 billion), 0.1 percentage point lower than July and weaker than expected, NBS data shows.
Fixed-asset investment grew 5.5 percent year on year to 40,062.8 billion yuan in the first eight months, 0.2 percentage points slower than the first seven months.
NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui told a press conference on Monday that overall China’s economy has remained stable in the first eight months as the country’s Industrial structure is being optimized and growth in the high-tech service industry is significantly higher.
Information transmission, software and information technology services grew by 16.9 percent, and leasing and business services grew by 8.1 percent, both higher than the 6.4 growth of the Index of Services Production in August.
The main causes of the slowdown is the country’s transition from an investment driven to consumption driven economy, Yuan Fuhua, director of the economic growth office of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.
The slowdown in fixed-asset investment growth is partly influenced by control measures in the real estate sector, Yuan added.
Indian growth for quarter ending June 2019 has been around 5.8%.
