More economic indicators show slowing growth in China

China's economic growth moderated as indicators of industrial production, fixed-asset investment and retail sales all reported slower expansion in the first two months of the year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Thursday.

Industrial production rose 8.6 percent from a year earlier in the January-February period, down from the pace of 9.7 percent in December of last year.

Fixed-asset investment increased 17.9 percent to 3.02 trillion yuan (US$491 billion) during the two-month period, slowing from a 19.6 percent rise during all of 2013.

Also, retail sales gained 11.8 percent year on year in the first two months, a surprising moderation from the jump of 13.6 percent in December.

Together with the trade data released on Saturday, nearly all indicators at the start of this year suggested that China's growth momentum has continued to slow down, analyst said.

Zhou Hao, an economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd, said the GDP growth in the first half of 2014 will likely be below 7.5 percent, which could trigger further policy easing in the foreseeable future.

China's exports slumped 18.1 percent in February from the same month a year earlier, worse than expected even taking seasonal factors into consideration, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

A bit earlier, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said the country's manufacturing activity grew at the slowest pace in eight months when production eased and new orders contracted in February.

China has kept the economic growth target at 7.5 percent for this year, and tried to keep inflation at under 3.5 percent. The priority was to keep a balance between moderate growth and accelerating reforms, Premier Li Keqiang said at the annual session of the National People's Congress which concluded on Thursday.