Beijing - Output at China's factories,
workshops and mines slowed in July, official data showed on Thursday,
in a sign of weakness in the world's second-largest economy despite
government efforts to boost growth.
Industrial production rose 9.2% last
month, the National Bureau of Statistics said, compared to an
increase of 9.5% year-on-year (y/y) in June.
Output for the first seven months of
2012 rose 10.3%, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
Separately, retail sales, the main
gauge of consumer spending, also slowed, rising 13.1% in July
compared with the same month last year, the bureau said.
Retail sales had gained 13.7% in June.
They rose 14.2% (y/y) in the first seven months of 2012.
China's economy grew 7.6% in the second
quarter from the same period the year before to log its worst
performance since the depths of the global economic crisis in
2008-2009.
Authorities have taken measures
including slashing interest rates and loosening restrictions on bank
lending to boost growth, which has been dented by weakness in
overseas economies including the European Union, a key trading
partner.
Also Thursday, the bureau said that
China's urban fixed asset investments rose 20.4% in the first seven
months of 2012 compared with the same period the year before.
Fixed asset investments are a key
measure of government spending on infrastructure.
Earlier, the bureau said that China's
inflation slowed in July to a two-and-a-half-year low.
*Follow Fin24 on Twitter, Facebook and
Google+.