Export uncertainty

Still, the signs of recovery remain fragile after 2012 trade fell short of China's 10 percent growth target as major demand centers including the euro zone and the United States struggled to pick up from the global financial crisis.

That was underlined by a decline in both new export orders and imports in China's official manufacturing purchasing managers' index in February.

That would hurt exports at a headline level and reduce imports to feed production lines in China's massive facto ry sector, which remains levered to foreign demand.

Industrial output data for January and February - combined to smooth out the impact of the Lunar New Year - may show a rise of 10.5 percent on the year when the numbers are published.

Up from 10.3 percent in December, the figures due on Saturday might still disappoint those who expected more following a pick-up in economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2012.

China's economy expanded by 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, bouncing from the 7.4 percent rate of the third quarter, the slowest three months of growth in the country since the first quarter of 2009 when the global financial crisis raged.

Inflation and retail sales data are due for release alongside industrial output.

Economists polled by Reuters expected retail sales growth of 15 percent year-on-year for January and February combined, in line with the pace at the end of 2012.

The consumer price index meanwhile may have spiked to 3.0 percent in February from 2.0 percent in January almost entirely as a consequence of Lunar New Year effects on food costs.

China's own official statisticians seek to avoid the distortions in industrial output, fixed asset investment and retail sales data by publishing combined numbers for the first two months of the year.