China's industrial production rose 7.2% year over year in the first two months of 2018, 0.9 percentage point higher than the same period in 2017 and 1.0 percentage point higher than in December 2017, National Bureau of Statistics data showed March 14.
High-tech industry production climbed 11.9% while equipment manufacturing industry production increased 8.4%, 4.7 percentage points and 1.2 percentage points higher, respectively, than overall growth. On a year-over-year basis, production of new-energy vehicles, integrated circuits and industrial robots grew 178.1%, 33.3%, and 25.1%, respectively.
In February, China's industrial production rose 0.57% month over month.
Meanwhile, China's total retail sales rose an annual 9.7% to 6.108 trillion yuan in the first two months of 2018, 0.2 percentage point higher than the same period in 2017 and 0.3 percentage point higher than in December 2017, statistics bureau data showed.
China's online retail sales, which account for 20% of total retail sales, grew 37.3% year over year to 1.227 trillion yuan, 5.4 percentage points higher than the same period in 2017.
Data from China early in the year is viewed with caution due to distortions caused by the timing of the Lunar New Year celebrations, which fell in late January 2017 but started in mid-February 2018. The first-quarter data release in April could provide a clearer picture of the country's economic condition, said a Reuters report.
As of March 13, US$1 was equivalent to 6.32 Chinese yuan.
