BEIJING — October readings for China’s major economic indicators came in better than expected, despite rising headwinds from renewed COVID outbreaks, a property market downturn and power shortages.
Industrial production rose 3.5% from a year earlier in October, speeding up from September’s 3.1% expansion, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday.
The result was also higher than the 2.8% median forecast made by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
Industrial output had cooled quickly in September amid a widespread power crunch resulting from coal shortages and the government’s ambitious carbon emissions-reduction efforts.
Retail sales, a key gauge of consumption, increased 4.9% in October, higher than September’s 4.4% growth and the 3.5% rise expected by the economists surveyed by the WSJ.
Fixed-asset investment rose 6.1% in the January-to-October period from a year earlier, slowing from the 7.3% pace set in the first three quarters, official data showed. Economists had anticipated an increase of 6.2% in the first ten months of the year.
China’s urban unemployment rate stayed unchanged at 4.9% in October and the government said it has met its annual job creation target after adding 11.33 million jobs in the first ten months.
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