China Industrial Production

China's industrial production expanded by 7.0% year-on-year in January-February 2024 combined, faster than a 6.8% growth in December 2023 and beating market forecasts of 5%. It was the fastest expansion in industrial output in almost two years, boosted by robust activities in manufacturing (7.7% vs 7.1% in December) and utilities (7.9% vs 7.3%), while mining continued to rise (2.3% vs 4.7%). By industries, production accelerated for computer and communications (14.6% vs 9.6%), and textile (6.6% vs 2.1%. Meanwhile, production continued to grow for coal mining and washing (1.4% vs 5.8%), oil and natural gas mining industry (3.0% vs 3.5%), non-ferrous metals (12.5% vs 12.9%), chemicals (10.0% vs 11.0%), general equipment (4.1% vs 4.6%), electrical machinery (4.6% vs 10.1%), and cars (9.8% vs 20.0%). On a monthly basis, the industrial output grew by 0.56%. In 2023, industrial output advanced by 4.6%.