BEIJING, March 12, (APP/AFP) – China’s industrial
production is growing at its slowest rate since the global financial crisis, the government said Saturday.
The measure, which gauges output at factories, workshops and mines in the
world’s second-largest economy, rose 5.4 percent year-on-year in January and
February.
The figures were the weakest since November 2008, during the global
financial crisis.
Retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, increased 10.2 percent
in the same period, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Fixed-asset
investment, a measure of mainly government spending on infrastructure, expanded
10.2 percent on-year for the first two months of 2016.
Results fell short of economists’ expectations, according to a survey by
Bloomberg News, which predicted a year-on-year increase in retail sales of 10.9
percent, while industrial production was projected to expand 5.6 percent.