China's industrial production and retail sales growth slowed more-than-expected at the start of the year, reflecting moderation in growth momentum, data revealed Wednesday.
Industrial production increased 6.8 percent year-on-year in the January to February period, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The annual growth was forecast to slow to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent.
The NBS publishes combined data for January and February to avoid the distortions caused by the timing of the Chinese Lunar New Year.
During January to February, retail sales grew at a pace of 10.7 percent, slower than an 11.9 percent rise seen in December and an expected increase of 11.6 percent.
Likewise, fixed asset investment increased 13.9 percent, slower than an expected growth of 15 percent. Investment gained 15.7 percent during the twelve months to December.
The government early this month downgraded its growth target for 2015 to around 7 percent after achieving 7.4 percent expansion in 2014.
The upshot is that economic momentum appears markedly weaker than suggested by the recent recovery in export growth and PMI readings, Julian Evans-Pritchard, a China economist at Capital Economics said. As such, a further slowdown in GDP growth in this quarter now looks likely.
According to the Customs Office, exports surged 48.3 percent in February taking the trade surplus to a record $60.6 billion. But export growth is widely expected to weaken with the effects of the New Year fading.
In the last four months, the People's Bank of China unleashed two interest rate reductions and lowered reserve requirements to cushion the economic growth.
In the first two months of the year, housing sales declined 16.7 percent from the same period of last year, the NBS reported.
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