China's industrial output growth quickens in May but retail sales and investment contract

BEIJING - China's industrial output rose 4.5% in May from a year earlier, picking up from 4.1% growth recorded in April, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Tuesday.

The reading beat expectations of a 4.3% increase in a Reuters poll.

Retail sales, a key gauge of consumption, shrank 0.6% last month, reversing April's 0.2% rise and below the estimated 0%. It marked the first monthly fall since December 2022.

Fixed-asset investment fell 4.1% in the first five months of 2025, following a 1.6% contraction in the January-April period. Economists had expected a 2% fall.

(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li, Ellen Zhang and Kevin Yao; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 10:05 PM.