New macroeconomic indicators have suggested stabilization in the Chinese economy and that China is on track to meeting the government's growth target for 2015.
Among the positives from figures released on Saturday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) are a notable rebound in industrial production and steady fixed-asset investment growth in November.
Property investment, however, remained weak, which could undermine a moderate recovery of the broader Chinese economy.
STRONG RETAIL
China's retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, rose 11.2 percent year on year in November, the highest monthly growth rate of the year.
NBS statistician Lin Tao said retail sales have grown steadily in the second half of this year. He attributed November's strong sales to better performance by the car industry, booming e-commerce and improving home sales.
Growth of online sales was 8 percentage points higher than in October, and online sales contributed more than 30 percent of retail sales growth in November, Lin said.
On Nov. 11, the annual Singles' Day shopping festival saw Alibaba Tmall's online sales jump 60 percent to reach 91.2 billion yuan (14.17 billion U.S. dollars). Its rival JD.com, though much smaller in volume, said 32 million orders were placed in the day, up 130 percent from last year.
In the first 11 months, online sales surged 34.5 percent year on year to 3.45 trillion yuan, accounting for 12.6 percent of gross retail sales, the NBS data showed.
Strong retail sales indicated that pro-consumption policies are taking effect. It also offered relief for Chinese policy-makers as they try to restructure the Chinese economy to a more consumption- and service-driven model to sustain growth, albeit at a slower rate.
Industrial output growth also picked up last month by posting a year-on-year 6.2-percent increase, up from the 5.6-percent growth recorded in October.
That represents the second-highest monthly growth this year, after June's 6.8 percent, pointing to tentative signs of improvement in the manufacturing sector.
Jiang Yuan, another NBS statistician, attributed November's industrial growth to a notable acceleration in automobile manufacturing. Thanks to a purchasing tax cut and previous destocking, the value-added of the auto industry jumped 13 percent in November, 5.7 percentage points higher than in October, Jiang said.
