China’s industrial production grew 4.8% year-on-year in November, a slight slowdown compared to the previous month (4.9%) and the third consecutive monthly decline, according to official data released today.
The value was also below the forecasts of most analysts, who anticipated an increase of around 5%.
Among the three large groups analyzed by the Chinese National Statistics Office (GNE), the mining sector was the one that recorded the greatest growth in November (+6.3%), followed by the manufacturing industry (+4.6%) and the production and supply of electricity, heating, gas and water (+4.3%).
Year-to-date, Chinese industrial production increased by 6%.
The GNE also released other data for November today, such as retail sales, an essential indicator of consumption, which slowed sharply from 2.9% in October to 1.3%, in a context of weak domestic demand. The market expectation was that the previous value would be maintained.
The official urban unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.1%.
Investment in fixed assets worsened the drop to 2.6% in the first 11 months of the year, 0.9 percentage points below the contraction recorded until October. Although analysts expected a further decline, they predicted a smaller contraction, around 2.3%.
By sectors, investment in the manufacturing industry increased by 1.9% until November, while those destined for infrastructure fell 1.1% and those linked to real estate development sank 15.9%, reflecting the prolonged crisis in the sector, which has worsened in recent weeks. These falls were 1 and 1.2 percentage points more pronounced, respectively, than until October.
In the real estate market, sales of commercial properties, measured by area, decreased by 7.8% until November, worsening the drop seen in the previous month by one percentage point.
The GNE also published today the report on housing prices, which points to a 0.39% drop in the prices of new homes, between October and November, in the 70 main Chinese cities, marking the 30th consecutive month of declines.