China’s economy continued to rebound in April while pressures persisted amid an uneven recovery, highlighting the need for further stimulus measures to consolidate the recovery trend, officials and experts said. “The Chinese economy continued to recover in April with improvement in key indicators, including industrial production, while the broader economy is still facing challenges from a more complicated external environment, mounting uncertainties, lack of effective domestic demand, operational pressures on enterprises and potential risks,” Liu Aihua, Spokeswoman for the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said. She added that more efforts will be made to better implement the existing policies and further consolidate the economic recovery.
China’s value-added industrial output grew by 6.7% year-on-year in April after a 4.5% rise in March. “China’s multitrack economy continued to exhibit strong manufacturing activity relative to consumer demand in April, with the housing correction still in search of a floor,” said Louise Loo, Lead Economist at Oxford Economics. She said China’s industrial production accelerated sequentially with a 1% month-on-month growth in April, helped by improvements in electronic equipment and high-tech manufacturing. The NBS high-lighted the robust growth in 3D printing equipment, new energy vehicles and integrated circuits, all of which grew more than 30% year-on-year.
Retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, rose 2.3% year-on-year in April versus the 3.1% rise in March. Loo attributed the weaker-than-expected retail sales data to unfavorable annual base effects and the relative lull in purchases between holidays. China’s fixed-asset investment (FAI) increased by 4.2% in the January-April period year-on-year, while in the first quarter, it grew by 4.5%. “Investments could pick up more meaningfully after a temporary lull, given the pipeline of sovereign bond issuances which should provide further impetus to infrastructure and manufacturing investments,” Loo said.
Zhou Maohua, Researcher at China Everbright Bank, said: “The recovery of China’s domestic demand is set to gather further steam in the following months with gradual improvement in consumer spending and investment, underpinned by China’s move to drive large-scale equipment renewal and the trade-in of consumer goods, front-loaded fiscal efforts and property easing policies taking effect gradually.” Looking ahead, Zhou said the Chinese economy will likely accelerate in the second quarter given the steady recovery in domestic demand, the resilience in the export sector and a low comparison base the previous year, the China Daily reports.
