China’s industrial production rebounded in April thanks to the government’s push for work resumption, but investment and consumption continued to fall from a year earlier amid sluggish domestic demand.
China’s industrial output rose 3.9% in April from a year earlier, improving from a 1.1% fall in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday. The reading beat a 1.0% increase forecast by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
Fixed-asset investment dropped 10.3% in the January-April period, compared with a 16.1% fall in the first quarter. Economists had anticipated a 9.5% decline.
Retail sales fell 7.5% in April, better than a 15.8% decline in March but still lower than the 7% drop expected by the economists.
China’s urban jobless rate rose to 6.0% in April, after retreating to 5.9% in March. In February, China’s urban unemployment rate reported a record high of 6.2% as millions of workers couldn’t get back to work due to coronavirus lockdowns.
