People walk out of the Taikoo Li Sanlitun Mall in the Sanlitun Shopping Area on August 31, 2021.
Artyom Ivanov | TASS | Getty Images
BEIJING: China’s retail sales grew a disappointing 2.5% in August a year ago as the country faced the worst outbreak of Covid-19 since its initial expansion in early 2020 .
Consumer spending data released Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics fell well below the 7% growth forecast for analysts surveyed by Reuters.
Growth in industrial production was also slightly below expectations, up 5.3% in August from the 5.8% forecast.
The data show that investment in fixed assets in the first eight months of the year increased by 8.9% compared to a year ago.
Mainland China controlled an outbreak in late July of the highly contagious delta variant in mid-August. Under Beijing’s “zero tolerance” policy, authorities had imposed travel restrictions and local closures in the country for much of the summer vacation.
Last month’s figures are also compared on a higher basis than the first half of the year, as China had already come out mostly from the height of the coronavirus pandemic last summer.
The unemployment rate in cities remained unchanged from July, at 5.1% in August, while that of people aged 16 to 24 fell slightly to 15.3%.
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– CNBC’s Yen Nee Lee contributed to this report.