ChinaVirtuoso

The growth of China’s industrial output, retail sales and fixed-asset investment slowed in October and missed market expectations, signaling that economic growth is expected to ease in the fourth quarter.

Value-added industrial output, an important contribution to gross domestic product, grew 6.2 percent year on year last month, 0.6 percentage points slower than in September, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
The growth also missed market expectations of 6.3 percent but was faster than the 6.1 percent increase in October last year. Retail sales jumped 10 percent, 0.3 percentage points slower than September and 0.4 percentage points slower than expected.

Both industrial output and retail sales growth were the second lowest this year.

Fixed-asset investment rose 7.3 percent year on year in the first 10 months of the year, the slowest rise since 1999. The market had expected growth of 7.4 percent.

Investment by the private sector, which accounted for more than 60 percent of total FAI, rose 5.4 percent year on year.

Bureau spokeswoman Liu Aihua said production and demand were balanced, more jobs have been created, prices were generally stable, and the quality of economic growth has improved with better profitability for both industrial and services companies.

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