China retail sales surge in November, beats market expectations

Retail sales in China surged during the month of November, beating what markets had initially anticipated.

Retail sales, a gauge of private and government spending, rose 10.8 percent year-on-year, up from October’s 10 percent pace, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed Tuesday. That was the fastest expansion this year. Economists expected retail sales to improve in November. Growth in industrial production and urban investment was forecast to remain steady.

A separate measure of annual fixed-asset investment, a proxy for long-term spending, gained rose 8.3 percent in the January-November period. Urban investment advanced at a similar pace in the year to October. Growth in this category has slowed sharply over the past three years.

Services, a priority sector for Beijing, grew at a faster rate in November, a sign that consumption was still making headway. China’s official non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) improved to 54.7 in November from 54.0 the previous month, data showed earlier this month. That was the fastest expansion since mind-2014, reports said.

Meanwhile, the USD/CNY traded at 6.90, down -0.01 percent.