Guangzhou (JLC), September 14, 2024 – China's key economic indicators continued to improve in August, 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 4.5% year on year in August, figures released by the NBS showed. In January-August, the industrial output grew 5.8% year on year.
However, China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) slipped to 49.1% in August, down from 49.4% in July, suggesting the manufacturing sector slowed down somewhat and was still in contraction, the NBS data indicated.
The service sector continued to improve, with the service production index rising 4.6% year on year in August, the NBS said. In January- August, the service production index rose 4.9% year on year.
Retail sales of goods, a key measurement of consumer spending, gained 2.1% year on year to CNY3.87 trillion in August, the NBS data showed. In January- August, China’s retail sales of goods gained 3.4% year on year to CNY31.25 trillion.
Fixed-asset investment - a gauge of expenditures on sectors including infrastructure, property, machinery and equipment – increased 3.4% year on year to CNY32.94 trillion in January-August.
In yuan terms, the total value of imports and exports of goods stood at about 3.75 trillion yuan in August, an increase of 4.8% year on year. Among them, exports were about 2.20 trillion yuan, up 8.4% year on year, while imports were about 1.55 trillion yuan, unchanged from a year ago.
In January-August, the total value of imports and exports of goods stood at about 28.58 trillion yuan, up 6.0% year on year. Among them, exports were about 16.46 trillion yuan, up 6.9% year on year, while imports were about 12.13 trillion yuan, up 4.7% year on year.
The surveyed urban jobless rate came in at 5.3% in August, up 0.1 percentage points from July, according to the NBS. In January-August, the urban unemployment rate averaged 5.2%, versus 5.3% in the same months last year.
