China’s July activity indicators all miss expectations

BEIJING — China’s industrial output expanded 3.8% in July from a year earlier, slowing from a 3.9% rise in June, official data showed on Monday, as a nascent recovery in the world’s second-largest economy faltered.

The growth was much weaker than a 4.6% increase that analysts had forecast in a Reuters poll.

Retail sales rose 2.7%, after rebounding 3.1% in the previous month. That also missed analysts’ forecast for 5.0% growth.

Fixed asset investment grew 5.7% in the first seven months of the year from the same period a year earlier, versus a forecast 6.2% rise and down from a 6.1% jump in January-June.

China’s economy narrowly escaped a contraction in the June quarter, hobbled by the lockdown of the commercial hub of Shanghai, a distressed property market and persistently soft consumer spending.

Risks to growth remain as many Chinese cities, including manufacturing hubs and popular tourist spots, impose lockdowns after fresh outbreaks of the more transmissible Omicron variant emerged.

(Reporting by Kevin Yao and Stella Qiu ; Editing by Sam Holmes)