Exports, traditionally the strongest driver of China’s economic growth, are being hit by friction with the United States and other Western countries | (Photo: Reuters)
An ongoing housing crisis and weak consumption held back China’s economic recovery in July, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Thursday.
Unemployment rose for the first time since February, standing at 5.2 percent, up from 5 percent in June.
Industrial production also increased more slowly than the previous month, showing a year-on-year increase of 5.1 percent in July, compared with a rise of 5.3 percent in June.
Retail sales grew slightly more than analysts had expected, rising 2.7 percent year-on-year in July, compared with 2 percent in June.
Statistics Bureau spokesman Liu Aihua said the recovery in consumption will be further consolidated given recent government policies to boost consumer spending.
Last month, Beijing announced plans to use 150 billion yuan ($20.9 billion) of government debt to finance swaps of consumer goods such as home appliances and cars to stimulate spending.
Consumption contributed about 60 percent of China’s economic growth in the first half of the year and is expected to take on an even bigger role in supporting the world’s second-largest economy.
Exports, traditionally the biggest driver of China’s economic growth, are being hit by friction with the United States and other Western countries.
Regarding urban unemployment, a sensitive issue for the ruling Communist Party, Liu said the 0.2 percentage point increase from the previous month was due to the impact of the graduation season.
Real estate investment fell 10.2 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of the year, after declining 10.1 percent in the January-June period.
A prolonged slump in China’s property market after regulators cracked down on excessive borrowing by developers set off a chain reaction that has pushed down home sales and prices and hit many other sectors of the economy, including construction, building materials and home appliances.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: August 15, 2024 | 10:56 am IS
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