Part 5/9:
In tandem with these developments, new official economic numbers were released by the National Bureau of Statistics. Retail sales saw the strongest growth since October, while industrial production and fixed asset investment outperformed expectations due to early fiscal stimulus. Still, analysts noted numerous uncertainties, cautioning that vulnerabilities linger despite the seemingly positive momentum.
While there may have been an uptick in retail sales growth, observers, including Michael Pettis from Peking University, emphasized that year-over-year comparisons draw attention to the need for sustainable consumption growth. Retail sales growth continues to struggle to keep pace with industrial output, raising concerns about the consumption share of GDP.