In China, important areas of the economy started the year better than expected by most experts. However, due to the recent sharp increase in corona infections and the strict measures associated with this, this development could be short-lived. In the first two months of the year, industrial production rose by 7.5 percent year-on-year, the government announced in Beijing on Tuesday. This means that growth weakened further compared to the previous months. However, experts surveyed by Bloomberg had only expected an increase of four percent.
Retail sales rose 6.7 percent in the first two months of the year after posting double-digit growth in the previous months. However, economists had only expected an increase of three percent. Investments in property, plant and equipment also surprised positively. In January and February, these rose by 12.2 percent compared to the previous year, after having recently risen by just under five percent. Analysts had expected a plus at the level of the previous month.
Because of the Chinese New Year, which falls in either January or February, the dates for the two months are always combined. Around the New Year celebrations, economic activity is shut down significantly for more than a week in some cases.
Since the Corona situation has recently worsened significantly in many large cities in the country and production in some plants has already been interrupted again, economists assume that activities in industry and also in retail will decrease again in March. (dpa)