China’s economy showed signs of strain in August, as sluggish domestic demand, headwinds from the US trade war and a prolonged property downturn continued to weigh on several major indicators.
Retail sales, a major gauge of consumption, rose by 3.4 per cent in August from a year earlier, slower than the 3.7 per cent growth observed in July, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday.
The figure fell short of the 3.82 per cent growth forecast in a poll by financial data provider Wind.
Industrial output grew by 5.2 per cent year on year in August, compared to 5.7 per cent growth in July, falling short of Wind’s 5.75 per cent estimate.
National fixed-asset investment rose by 0.5 per cent in the first eight months of 2025, missing Wind’s forecast of 1.29 per cent, following a 1.6 per cent gain in the first seven months of the year.
Property investment – which has weighed on the economy since several major Chinese developers ran into solvency issues in 2021 – continued to decline, falling 12.9 per cent in the period from January to August, compared with a 12 per cent slump recorded in the first seven months of the year.
