Guangzhou (JLC), June 16, 2025--China's key economic indicators suggested that the economy sustained steady growth in May 2025, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The growth in the country's retail sales was faster than expected, while that in the industrial output slowed down, figures released by the NBS indicated.
China's retail sales of goods, a key measurement of consumer spending, rose 6.4% year on year to 4.13 trillion yuan in May, accelerating from the 5.1% growth in April. Compared with the month before, this figure was 0.93% higher. In the first five months, the retail sales of goods climbed 5.0% year on year to 20.32 trillion yuan.
The value-added industrial output – a gauge of activity in the manufacturing, mining and utilities sectors – increased 5.8% year on year in May, slowing down from the 6.1% rise in April. On a month-on-month comparison, the data went up 0.61%. In January-May, the industrial output gained 6.3% from a year before.
At the same time, the service sector continued to improve, with the service production index expanding 6.2% year on year in May, the NBS data showed. In January-May, the service production index mounted 5.9% from the same period last year.
As for the surveyed urban unemployment rate, it dropped again in May, with the reading coming in at 5.0%, a fall of 0.1 percentage points from the previous month. In the first five months, the rate averaged out at 5.2%.
In yuan terms, the total value of imports and exports of goods stood at about 3.81 trillion yuan in May, up 2.7% year on year. Among them, exports moved up by 6.3% to 2.28 trillion yuan, while imports went down by 2.1% to 1.53 trillion yuan.
In January-May, the total value of imports and exports of goods stood at around 17.94 trillion yuan, up 2.5% from the same months last year. Among them, exports increased by 7.2% to 10.67 trillion yuan, while imports decreased by 3.8% to 7.28 trillion yuan.
Meanwhile, fixed-asset investment – a gauge of expenditures on sectors including infrastructure, property, machinery and equipment – swelled 3.7% year on year to 19.19 trillion yuan in the first five months, the NBS data also indicated.
