China's retail sales of consumer goods rose by 4.9 percent in October from a year earlier, while value-added industrial output went up by 3.5 percent year on year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Monday.
Both retail sales and industrial output beat expectations. Reuters and Bloomberg had predicted a growth for October retail sales of 3.5 percent and 3.8 percent respectively, while both estimated a rise of 3 percent for industrial output.
In the first 10 months, fixed asset investment – a gauge of expenditures on items including infrastructure, property, machinery and equipment – climbed up by 6.1 percent from a year ago, slightly below the 6.2-percent rise expected by both Reuters and Bloomberg.
The surveyed jobless rate held remained unchanged from September and stood at 4.9 percent in October, according to the NBS. China has set a target of a 5.5 percent unemployment rate for the whole year.
China's economy has shown continued recovery from the pandemic, but due to the COVID-19 resurgence, floods and high base, its economic growth in the third quarter slowed to 4.9 percent year on year, receding from 7.9 percent in the second quarter and marking a further deceleration from the 18.3-percent jump in the first quarter.
Last week, the country's factory-gate inflation hit a 26-year high in October, while consumer prices rose slightly amid public concern over food shortages.
China's U.S. dollar exports rose 27.1 percent year on year October, beating estimates as global demands remain strong and energy demand grows.