China's Industrial Output Up 5.6%, Home Prices Drop 10.1% in May

TMTPOST—China's manufacturing sector expanded in May while the real estate market continued to be sluggish, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Monday.

Value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, went up 5.6% year on year in May, according to the NBS data. Meanwhile, the equipment and high-tech manufacturing sectors in particular posted strong growth last month, with their output up 7.5% and 10% from a year ago, respectively.

On a monthly basis, the entire industrial output edged up 0.3% in May from the previous month. During the January-May period, it rose 6.2% year on year.

The industrial output measures the activity of enterprises each with an annual main business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about US$2.81 million).

China's retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of the country's consumption strength, climbed 4.1% year on year in the first five months of 2024, official data showed Monday.

Retail sales during the period hit 19.52 trillion yuan (about US$ 2.74 trillion), according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

In May alone, retail sales of consumer goods expanded 3.7% year on year to 3.92 trillion yuan, the data showed.

China's fixed-asset investment rose 4% year on year in the first five months of 2024, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Monday.

Investment in property development, however, fell 10.1% year on year during the January-May period, according to the NBS.

Excluding the property development investment, the country's fixed-asset investment climbed 8.6% during the first five months.

Property investment fell 10.1% year-on-year in January-May, deepening from a decline of 9.8% in January-April.

The National Bureau of Statistics said that 70 large and medium-sized cities saw month-on-month declines in both new and second-hand home prices.

In May, the sales price of new commercial housing in first-tier cities fell by 0.7% month-on-month, representing a steeper decline compared with a 0.6% month-on-month drop in April, NBS data showed.

Power generation of China's major electricity production enterprises went up 2.3% year on year in May, official data showed Monday.

Total power output of these firms reached 717.9 billion kilowatt-hours last month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

A breakdown of the data revealed that the output of solar power soared 29.1% year on year, while that for hydropower rose 38.6%.

The output of thermal power and nuclear power shrank 4.3% and 2.4%, respectively, year on year, according to the NBS.

China's production of natural gas has maintained steady expansion in the first five months of 2024, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Monday.

The country produced 103.3 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the January-May period, up 5.2% from a year earlier.

China's natural gas imports also posted fast growth during this period, NBS data showed. A total of 54.28 million tons of natural gas was imported in the first five months of 2024, up 17.4% year on year.

In May alone, the natural gas output expanded 6.3% year on year to 20.3 billion cubic meters, according to the NBS.