Dow Jones Newswires: China retail sales and industrial production cooled in May

United States

Growth in China’s consumption and industrial production cooled in May, showing that the country’s economic recovery is losing momentum, official data showed Thursday.

Retail sales, a proxy for China’s consumption, rose 12.7% from a year earlier in May, down from an 18.4% increase in April, said the National Bureau of Statistics. The result missed the 13.1% growth expected by economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.

On a monthly basis, retail sales rose 0.42% in May from April.

Industrial production rose 3.5% in May from a year earlier, down from April’s 5.6% increase and on par with the 3.5% growth expected by surveyed economists.

China’s industrial output rose 0.63% in May from a month earlier, the statistics bureau said.

Fixed-asset investment increased 4.0% in the January-May period, slowing from the 4.7% increase in the first four months and slower than the 4.4% growth anticipated by economists.

China’s surveyed urban unemployment rate remained at 5.2% in May, same as in April. However, the youth unemployment rate, which covers workers aged 16 to 24 years old, stood at 20.8% in May, a record high.

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