China's economic data moderates in August

China's major economic data continually moderated in August, mainly because of the increasing external headwinds, and more countermeasures are urged to offset the impact and stabilize growth, according to economists.

Industrial output in August rose by 4.4 percent from a year earlier, compared with 4.8 percent in July and 6.3 percent in June, based on data the National Bureau of Statistics released Monday.

The growth rate of retail sales increased by 7.5 percent year-on-year, and the total sales reached 3.39 trillion yuan in August. The growth pace was down from 7.6 percent in July and 9.8 percent in June.

Fixed-asset investment climbed by 5.5 percent in the first eight months, retreating from 5.7 percent in the January-to-July period. That growth rate was 5.8 percent by the end of the first half of this year, the NBS showed.

More countercyclical measures will be needed to help stabilize China's economic growth, said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia Economics, Oxford Economics. "We have seen some movement in this direction recently, such as the reserve requirement ratio cut and the indications that the government is advancing the process for setting the 2020 quota for the issuance of local government bonds to support infrastructure spending.

"But more significant steps are needed if policymakers want to stabilize growth," he added.