China Industrial Output Growth Holds Steady in May; Up 6.5% On-Year

Industrial output growth in China held steady in May following a strong start to the year, data official data showed Wednesday.

Value-added industrial output, a rough proxy for economic growth, in May rose 6.5% from a year earlier, the same pace as in April, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The increase was slightly above a median forecast of 6.4% growth from a Wall Street Journal poll of 11 economists.

On a month-on-month basis, industrial production increased 0.51% in May, compared with a 0.56% rise the previous month.

Fixed-asset investment in non-rural areas of China in the first five months of 2017 climbed 8.6% compared with the same period a year earlier, slowing from the 8.9% increase over the January-April period. The rise in fixed-asset investment, a closely watched indicator of construction activity, was slightly below the median forecast for a 9.0% gain from a poll of economists.

Retail sales grew 10.7% in May from a year earlier, the same pace as in April. The reading was lower than the median forecast for a 10.8% increase.

Retail sales rose 0.86% in May compared with the previous month. In April sales increased 0.79%.

China's economy expanded 6.9% in the first quarter from a year earlier, the strongest pace in six quarters.

-- Pei Li

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 13, 2017 22:17 ET (02:17 GMT)