Guangzhou (JLC), June 17, 2024 – China's key economic indicators continued to improve in May, suggesting that the economy was still well 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 5.6% year on year in May, figures released by the NBS showed. In January-May, the industrial output grew 6.2% year on year.
However, China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) slipped to 49.5% in May, down from 50.4% in April, suggesting the manufacturing sector slowed down somewhat, the NBS data indicated.
The service sectors continued to show some improvement, with the service production index rising 4.8% year on year in May, accelerating from 3.5% in April, the NBS said. In January-May, the service production index rose 5.0% year on year.
Retail sales of goods, a key measurement of consumer spending, gained 3.7% year on year to CNY3.92 trillion in May, the NBS data showed. In January-May, China’s retail sales of goods gained 4.1% year on year to CNY19.52 trillion.
Fixed-asset investment - a gauge of expenditures on sectors including infrastructure, property, machinery and equipment – increased 4.0% year on year to CNY18.80 trillion in January-May.
In yuan terms, the total value of imports and exports of goods stood at about 3.71 trillion yuan in May, an increase of 8.6% year on year. Among them, exports were about 2.15 trillion yuan, up 11.2% year on year, while imports were about 1.56 trillion yuan, up 5.2% year on year.
In January-May, the total value of imports and exports of goods stood at about 17.50 trillion yuan, up 6.3% year on year. Among them, exports were about 9.95 trillion yuan, up 6.1% year on year, while imports were about 7.55 trillion yuan, up 6.4% year on year.
The surveyed urban jobless rate came in at 5.0% in May, down 0.2 percentage points from the same month last year, according to the NBS. In January-May, the urban unemployment rate was at 5.1%, versus 5.4% in the same months last year.
