China's August retail sales grow 0.4%, below expectations; eight-month investment falls 7.2%
Macro Impact 4
China's National Bureau of Statistics reported on September 15 that China's retail sales in August rose only 0.4% year on year, slowing from 0.6% in July and below analysts' expectations of a 0.8% increase. Industrial output in August jumped 5.2%, accelerating from 4.5% in July and stronger than the 4.8% analysts had expected. Urban fixed-asset investment, which includes real estate and infrastructure investment, fell 7.2% year on year in the first eight months of the year, steeper than the 6.7% decline in the first seven months and in line with analysts' forecasts. The urban unemployment rate rose to 5.3% in August from 5.2% in July. The statistics bureau cited a severe imbalance between strong supply and weak domestic demand, and called for stepping up macro policy adjustments and boosting domestic demand, alongside improving the industrial sector to promote innovation-driven development. The Chinese government has set a GDP growth target of 4.5% to 5% for 2026, but GDP grew only 4.3% in the second quarter of 2026, the lowest level in more than three years.
