China's Factory Output Picks Up in August as Retail Sales Cool

China's National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday reported mild economic growth in August, with industrial output rising faster.

The country's industrial production gained 5.2 percent year on year in August, expanding from the 4.5 percent rise in July. The pace averaged 5.3 percent in the first eight months.

Retail sales, a major indicator of the country's consumption strength, increased 0.4 percent from a year earlier in August, albeit slower than the rise of 0.6 percent in July. In the first eight months, retail sales rose 1.1 percent.

Fixed-asset investment dropped 7.2 percent year on year in the first eight months to 29.3 trillion yuan (US$4.33 trillion), widening further from the 6.7 percent fall in the first seven months.

The headline was high-tech industry investment, which rose 5.2 percent year over year in January–August, especially in information services, aerospace and spacecraft manufacturing, and electronic and communication equipment manufacturing, which rose 22.7 percent, 14.9 percent, and 6.9 percent, respectively.

The bureau also released property market data for the 70 cities it tracks.

New commercial home prices in first-tier cities rose 0.1 percent in August after flat growth in July. Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen prices rose 0.4, 0.1, and 0.2 percent month over month, while Beijing's fell 0.2 percent. Prices fell 0.1 percent in second-tier cities and 0.2 percent in third-tier cities, narrowing by 0.1 percentage points from July.

In the first eight months, the bureau reported a 12.1 percent drop in new commercial housing sales by size but a 10.6 percent increase in existing home sales.

Investment in China's real estate development fell 19.9 percent to 4.8 trillion yuan between January and August, with residential property investment falling 19.7 percent.

China's urban unemployment rate averaged 5.2 percent in the first eight months, unchanged from the same period last year.