China industrial output picks up, retail sales slow in April

BEIJING, May 17 (AFP): Chinese industrial production picked up in April but consumption slowed, official figures showed Friday, as woes in the property sector and elsewhere continued to weigh on economic recovery.

Industrial output rose 6.7 percent on-year last month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, building on a 4.5 percent increase in March.

The figure was higher than the 5.5 percent tipped in a Bloomberg forecast of economists.

However, retail sales growth -- China's key gauge of consumer spending -- continued to slow, expanding just 2.3 percent -- down from 3.1 percent in March and lower than forecasts.

The sales figures are "depressed by low consumer prices and further contraction in housing sales", said Dan Wang, chief economist at Hang Seng Bank China.