China’s economy maintained its recovery trend in July, with major economic indicators showing steady growth despite the nationwide COVID-19 outbreaks and heat waves.
China’s value-added industrial output rose 3.8 percent year on year in July and 0.38 percent in June, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday.
Retail sales of consumer goods in the country rose 2.7% year-on-year last month, with sales of consumer goods such as jewelry and household appliances rising rapidly.
Other major economic indicators, including the services production index and fixed asset investment, also showed positive year-on-year growth, according to BNS data.
Thanks to the steady economic recovery, the country’s urban unemployment rate continued to fall, from 5.5% in June to 5.4% in July.
Continued economic recovery in July did not come easily as the country faced sporadic outbreaks of COVID-19 and high temperatures in many areas, said BNS spokesperson Fu Linghui at a press conference.
Fu pointed out that the modernization and transformation of the Chinese economy is also continuing.
In July, production of new energy and solar cell vehicles rose 112.7 percent and 33.9 percent year-on-year, respectively.
During the January-July period, high-tech manufacturing value added grew 9% year-on-year, while investment in high-tech industries soared 20.2%.
“However, the economy is still recovering, with insufficient market demand being a big constraint,” Fu noted, adding that the foundations for economic recovery need to be consolidated.
Newly added social finance, a measure that individuals and non-financial businesses receive from the financial system, amounted to 756.1 billion yuan (regarding $112.16 billion) last month, down 319, 1 billion yuan compared to the same period last year, according to data from the People’s Bank of China (PBC, the country’s central bank).
Fu said he expects household consumption to recover gradually thanks to more sophisticated policies to prevent and control the epidemic as well as promote consumption. In particular, preferential consumer policies for automobiles and home appliances are expected to boost big-ticket sales growth.
As bottlenecks in industrial and supply chains are gradually resolved, key industries such as automobiles are returning to normal production, which will continue to play a supporting role for China’s industrial growth.
“With joint efforts, the momentum of economic recovery is expected to continue,” Fu said.
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