China August industrial output up 6.1% year-on-year: govt

Growth in China's industrial production and retail sales accelerated in August, government data showed today, but the figures will do little to ease international concern about the world's second-largest economy.
Industrial production, which measures output at factories, workshops and mines, rose 6.1 per cent year-on-year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced, describing the sector as still weak.
The figure outpaced July's year-on-year gain of 6.0 per cent but was below a median forecast of 6.5 per cent in a survey of economists by Bloomberg News.
Retail sales increased 10.8 per cent in August from a year earlier, exceeding the previous month's 10.5 per cent and also besting the median estimate in the Bloomberg survey of 10.6 per cent.

The figures are the latest closely watched snapshot of the Asian giant, a key driver of global economic growth, after a series of disappointing indicators during the current third quarter.
The most recent official and private manufacturing surveys indicate that the sector is contracting.

And inflation data released Thursday showed consumer price rises accelerating but factory gate prices in deflation for the 42nd straight month and falling at the fastest pace in six years.
Reacting to today's data, Jiang Yuan, an NBS statistician, described the industrial situation as still on a "shaky foundation" despite the slight rebound in production last month.

"The market demand at home and abroad for industrial products is still weak now," Jiang said in a statement on the NBS website. "The downward pressure on industrial production is still big."
China's economy expanded 7.3 per cent in 2014, its weakest performance in 24 years, and growth has slowed further this year. Gross domestic product (GDP) increased 7.0 per cent in each of the first two quarters of this year.
Authorities are officially targeting growth of about 7.0 per cent this year, though economists increasingly see that goal as difficult to achieve given recent weakness.
"The economy is showing no sign of recovery," said Ding Shuang, chief China economist at Standard Chartered in Hong Kong, Bloomberg reported.

"From the perspective of monetary policy, the government has done what it can, but demand from the real economy needs to pick up to really make use of that.