![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0021b97d-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nChina’s consumer spending and factory output grew at their slowest pace in years last month, official data showed today, a stark sign of the challenges Beijing faces to reignite domestic activity.<\/p>\n
The world’s second-largest economy has struggled to mount a strong recovery since the Covid-19 pandemic ended, despite a historic boom in exports.<\/p>\n
Economists have long argued that China should shift towards an economic model led more by household spending than traditional drivers including exports and construction.<\/p>\n
Retail sales growth slid to just 0.2% in April compared to the same month last year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said today.<\/p>\n
The figure represented the slowest increase since December 2022, when the country was reeling from an outbreak of Covid-19 infections after the abrupt scrapping of pandemic control policies.<\/p>\n
It missed a Bloomberg forecast of 2% in April based on a survey of economists.<\/p>\n
Industrial production also came up short of expectations last month, the official data showed, growing 4.1% year-on-year, down from 5.7% in March. That marked the slowest increase in factory output recorded by the NBS since July of 2023.<\/p>\n
“The external environment remains complex and volatile,” said NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui at a press conference following the data’s publication.<\/p>\n
“Domestically, the imbalance of strong supply and weak demand remains a prominent issue,” he added.<\/p>\n
Today’s data “sent a clear warning signal to those expecting a rebound in domestic demand,” Alicia Garcia-Herrero, Asia-Pacific chief economist at Natixis, told AFP.<\/p>\n
The country’s growth model “has bifurcated into two distinct trends: weakening domestic demand and a shining performance in high-tech products”, she said.<\/p>\n
“The export market appears to be the only way to make the system sustainable, at least in the short run.”<\/p>\n
Spending slump<\/p>\n
A years-long crisis in the once-booming property sector has spooked consumers, though analysts say there have been signs of slight recovery in the real estate market in recent months.<\/p>\n
NBS data showed today that new home prices in a selection of 70 cities dropped at a slower rate in April than in previous months.<\/p>\n
Beijing is targeting overall economic growth this year of between 4.5% and 5% year-on-year, down from the 2025 target of around 5%. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Official data released last month suggested that the economy was on track to meet that goal, though experts warn the full impact on China’s economy from the still-unresolved US-Israeli war on Iran has yet to be realised.<\/p>\n
Consumer prices increased in April as the cost of crude oil rose globally due to the war, the NBS said last week.<\/p>\n
However, analysts warn that deflationary pressure is still weighing on the Chinese economy.<\/p>\n
As domestic consumption slumps, exports from the manufacturing powerhouse have boomed, offering Beijing a key economic lifeline.<\/p>\n
The country recorded an unprecedented $1.2 trillion trade surplus last year, with challenges in trade with the US offset by booming shipments to other markets, including Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
“Domestic headwinds look to have intensified last month, especially when it comes to construction activity,” Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics wrote after today’s data publication.<\/p>\n
“But with external demand picking up and the electronics sector in an upswing, we still think that China’s economy is on course to hold up well this year,” he said.<\/p>\n
“All told, the April activity data are disappointing but not cause for alarm just yet,” he wrote, adding that he anticipates growth remaining “resilient over the rest of the year”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China’s consumer spending and factory output grew at their slowest pace in years last month, official data showed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-454859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}