China's economy continues steady recovery in April, says NBS

China's economy maintained a steady recovery in April, with production and demand continuing to grow while employment and price level generally stable, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.

The country's industrial output rose by 9.8 percent year-on-year last month, compared with 14.1 percent in March and sending the two-year average growth to 6.8 percent, the NBS said. The two-year average growth was 0.6 percentage points higher than in March.

Retail sales grew by 17.7 percent year-on-year in April, compared with 34.2 percent a month earlier. The two-year average growth came in at 4.3 percent last month, the bureau said.

Fixed-asset investment rose by 19.9 percent on a yearly basis in the January-April period, versus 25.6 percent in the first quarter of the year. On the two-year average basis, fixed-asset investment grew by 3.9 percent in the first four months.

The surveyed urban jobless rate came in at 5.1 percent last month, improving from 5.3 percent in March.

Despite improvements, the NBS said the foundation of recovery is “not yet solid" with new problems emerging, while the global situation of the COVID-19 is still complicated and the world’s recovery remains unbalanced.