Guangzhou (JLC), May 18, 2026--China's economy maintained steady growth in April, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on May 18, releasing the latest data.
China's value-added industrial output—a gauge of activity in the manufacturing, mining and utilities sectors—grew 4.1% year on year and 0.05% month on month in April. In January-April, the industrial output went up 5.6% from a year before, the NBS data shows.
The service sector continued to improve, with the service production index rising 4.3% year on year last month. In January-April, the service production index mounted 4.9% from the same period last year.
Retail sales of goods, a key measurement of consumer spending, saw a growth of 0.2% year on year versus a decrease of 0.48% month on month. In the first four months, China's retail sales of goods climbed 1.9% year on year to 16.49 trillion yuan, the data also shows.
Fixed-asset investment—a gauge of expenditures on sectors including infrastructure, manufacturing, and real estate development—fell by 1.6% from one year earlier to around 14.13 trillion yuan in January-April. It was up 1.3% excluding the real estate development.
The total value of imports and exports of goods stood at about 4.38 trillion yuan in April, surging by 14.2% year on year. Among them, exports expanded 9.8% to 2.48 trillion yuan, while imports leapt 20.6% to around 1.90 trillion yuan.
In January-April, the total value of imports and exports of goods stood at around 16.23 trillion yuan, up 14.9% from the same months last year. Among them, exports rose 11.3% to 9.33 trillion yuan, while imports soared 20.0% to around 6.90 trillion yuan.
The surveyed urban unemployment rate came in at 5.2% in April, down 0.2 percentage points month on month. In January-April, the urban unemployment rate averaged 5.3%, according to the NBS.
