Chinese retail sales support economic growth

BOFIT Viikkokatsaus / BOFIT Weekly Review 2015/38

August figures on the real economy reinforce the view that, while China’s economy continues to slow, its structure is also evolving. Growth of fixed asset investment (FAI) slowed in January-August to 11 %. There has been a distinct slowdown in real estate investment and to a lesser extent lower growth in production investment. On the other hand, investment in infrastructure has picked up slightly. Industrial output continued to rise at 6 % y-o-y. Retail sales grew over 10 % in real terms, indicating robust increases in both consumer demand and expansion of the service sector (roughly, of course, as retail sales are an imperfect indicator of consumption or production of services). Consumer price inflation accelerated from 1.6 % in July to 2 % in August.

Industrial output, retail sales and fixed asset investment
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Source: Macrobond.

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