More confirmation that China’s economic expansion is growing with the last batch of economic figures for November showing sharp rises in output and consumer spending.
In fact, industrial production grew at the fastest pace in 20 months in November, thanks to the revival in consumer spending and a gradual easing of COVID-19 restrictions in major trading partners lifted demand for the country’s manufactured goods.
(It might be a different story though in December and January with the US and many European countries shutting down again for varying periods of time because of surging COVID infections and related deaths).
But while crude steel production, an important measure for Australia, was up from November, 2019, output again fell to around 87 million tonnes from just over 92 million tonnes in October
China’s National Bureau of Statistics said that industrial output grew 7.0% in November from a year earlier, slightly faster than the 6.9% expansion in September and October and 4.8% in June and July.
It was the fastest annual growth rate since March 2019. Output for the 11 months to November was up 2.3%.
Among major industries, grew for chemicals (9.2% vs 8.8%), communications (9.3% vs 5%), machinery (18% vs 17.6%), non-metal minerals (9.6% vs 9.3%), power equipment (5.1% vs 3.6%). Growth in textiles fell to 6.5 from 9.5% in October and ferrous metals output fell to a 9.6% growth rate from 11.2%.
Retail sales rose 5% on-year and much faster than the 4.3% increase in October. Car sales jumped 11.8% and sales of household appliances were up 5.1% in November. Communications equipment sales jumped 43.6%.
Fixed-asset investment rose 2.6% in January-November from the same period last year, faster than a 1.8% increase in the first 10 months of 2020.
Private-sector fixed-asset investment, which accounts for 60% of total investment, rose 0.2% in January-November, compared with a 0.7% decline in the first 10 months of the year.
That’s more evidence that China’s long investment boom remains weak.
