China manufacturing: output increased in October
Photo: China.org

China’s industrial production, which measures output at factories, workshops and mines in the world’s second-largest economy, grew 7.7 percent year-on-year in October, the government announced Thursday, down from 8.0 percent in September.

Retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, increased 11.5 percent in the same month, the National Bureau of Statistics said, slowing from September’s 11.6 percent gain.

And fixed asset investment, a measure of government spending on infrastructure, expanded 15.9 percent on-year in the first 10 months, compared with the gain of 16.1 percent over the first nine months.

All the figures were below market expectations, with the median forecasts in surveys of 11 economists by the Wall Street Journal being for industrial output to go up 8.0 percent, retail sales 11.6 percent, and fixed asset investment 16.0 percent.

China’s economy expanded 7.3 percent in the third quarter, lower than the 7.5 percent in the previous three months and the slowest since 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis.

On Monday the NBS said that Chinese inflation was unchanged at a near five-year low of 1.6 percent in October, though analysts warned of deflationary risks.

The consumer price index (CPI) figure was the weakest since January 2010.