Guangzhou (JLC), August 15, 2024 – China's key economic indicators continued to improve in July, suggesting that the economy was still on track for a steady growth this year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
China's value-added industrial output - a gauge of activity in the manufacturing, mining and utilities sectors - grew 5.1% year on year in July, figures released by the NBS showed. In January-July, the industrial output grew 5.9% year on year.
However, China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) slipped to 49.4% in July, down from 49.5% in June, suggesting the manufacturing sector slowed down somewhat and was still in contraction, the NBS data indicated.
The service sector continued to show some improvement, with the service production index rising 4.8% year on year in July, accelerating from 4.7% in June, the NBS said. In January-July, the service production index rose 4.9% year on year.
Retail sales of goods, a key measurement of consumer spending, gained 2.7% year on year to CNY3.78 trillion in July, the NBS data showed. In January-July, China’s retail sales of goods gained 3.5% year on year to CNY27.37 trillion.
Fixed-asset investment - a gauge of expenditures on sectors including infrastructure, property, machinery and equipment – increased 3.6% year on year to CNY28.76 trillion in January-July.
In yuan terms, the total value of imports and exports of goods stood at about 3.68 trillion yuan in July, an increase of 6.5% year on year. Among them, exports were about 2.14 trillion yuan, up 6.5% year on year, while imports were about 1.54 trillion yuan, up 6.6% year on year.
In January-July, the total value of imports and exports of goods stood at about 24.83 trillion yuan, up 6.2% year on year. Among them, exports were about 14.26 trillion yuan, up 6.7% year on year, while imports were about 10.58 trillion yuan, up 5.4% year on year.
The surveyed urban jobless rate came in at 5.2% in July, down 0.1 percentage points from the same month last year, according to the NBS. In January-July, the urban unemployment rate averaged 5.1%, versus 5.3% in the same months last year.
