Beijing, May 16 Chinese industrial production continued to accelerate to 5.6% year-on-year in April, a figure that represents an advance compared to the data for March (3.9%), according to official data released today by the National Statistics Office (ONE) of the Asian country. .
However, the figure for the fourth month of the year was well below the most widespread forecasts among analysts, who expected an advance of around 10% compared to the same period in 2022.
Of the three large sectors into which the ONE divides the indicator, mining remained as it was, while manufacturing advanced 6.5% and the production and supply of electricity, heating, gas and water, 4, 8%.
The institution also released other statistical data today, such as retail sales, a key indicator to measure the state of consumption and which increased by 18.4% year-on-year, a figure higher than the 10.6% reached in March, but which remains slightly below what was expected by the experts, who advanced that it would be around 20%.
The official unemployment rate in urban areas stood at 5.2% at the end of April, 0.1 points below that registered in the previous month and within the maximum limit that the authorities imposed for this year, of 5 ,5 %.
For its part, investment in fixed assets increased by 4.7% year-on-year in the first four months of the year after having done so by 5.1% up to March, which translates into a decrease in March that the ONE preferred to express in MoM terms (-0.64%).
Analysts had predicted that said indicator would grow to 5.5%.
Within this indicator, the increase in spending on infrastructure (+8.5%) and manufacturing (+8.3%) contrasted with the fall in investment in sectors such as mining (-2.2%). EFE
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