By Li Hongmei
China's retail sales powered ahead in November while growth in industrial production and investment eased, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
Retail sales, a broad measure of general consumption in the economy, gained 13.7 percent from a year earlier to 2.1 trillion yuan (US$341.4 billion) last month, the bureau said, adding that the growth accelerated from the rise of 13.3 percent in October.
Comparatively, industrial production rose 10 percent from a year earlier last month, slowing from the gain of 10.3 percent in October.
Meanwhile, fixed-asset investment rose 19.9 percent to 39.13 trillion yuan in the first 11 months, also easing from the 20.1-percent increase in the first 10 months.
Xue Jun, an economist at CITIC Securities Co, said China's economic performance remained stable last month and the slower growth in industrial production and fixed-asset investment was in line with the government's restructuring efforts.
Liu Xuesong, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said it is high time that the manufacturing sector cut excessive production capability.
"China needs to cope with overcapacity in manufacturing, which requires the growth of industrial production to slow down a bit," Liu said.
But questions abound whether retail sales can sustain the growth momentum, according to an analyst.
"The sales jump in November was bolstered, to some extent, by the online sales promotion campaign on Single's Day," said Li Maoyu, an analyst at Changjiang Securities Co. "We shall wait to see how long it will last."
CASS also predicted in a report yesterday that China's economy will grow 7.7 percent this year and 7.5 percent next year, with the services sector becoming the biggest contributor to economic growth.
The Consumer Price Index, the main gauge of inflation, rose 3 percent annually in November, down from 3.2 percent in October and slowing for the first time in three months.
Meanwhile, China's power production increased 6.8 percent from a year ago to 439.2 billion kilowatt-hours in November, the statistics bureau said.
Power output in the first 11 months of this year climbed 7 percent from a year earlier to 4.74 trillion kilowatt-hours, according to the bureau.
