Retail sales growth sole bright spot in new raft of October data

Solid year-on-year growth of 11% in China’s retail sales for October were overshadowed by decelerating factory output of 5.6% and slipping growth in property investment of 2%, down from 5.7% and 2.6% respectively, Reuters reported, citing new figures from the National Bureau of Statistics. Growth in fixed asset investment, typically a leading indicator for the property market, edged down to 10.2% for the first ten months of the year after ticking up by 0.1 of a percentage point in the January-September period. “While consumption outperformed somewhat, the overall growth profile still remains weak,” said Zhou Hao, senior emerging markets economist at Commerzbank in Singapore.