China’s industrial output increased 5.0% year on year in October, down from the 6.3% pace seen in September, according to official statistics released on Tuesday, as Covid-19 curbs dragged on factory activity.
Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted a 5.2% rise, thus this result was disappointing.
Retail sales dipped 0.5%, the first drop since a city-wide lockdown in Shanghai in May.
The figures revealed new signs of weakness in the world’s second-largest economy, which has been struggling with prolonged COVID controls, a severe property crisis, and, most lately, decreasing external demand.
