Guangzhou (JLC), June 16, 2026--China's economic performance maintained steady momentum in May 2026, according to the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
China's value-added industrial output - a gauge of activity in the manufacturing, mining and utilities sectors - increased by 4.5% year on year and 0.4% month on month in May. In the first five months, the industrial output gained 5.4% from a year before, the NBS data showed.
In the service sector, the production index grew by 4.4% year on year in the month. In January-May, the index grew by 4.8% from the same period last year.
By contrast, retail sales of goods, a key measurement of consumer spending, slipped by 0.6% year on year and 0.38% month on month to about 4.11 trillion yuan in May. In the first five months, however, the sales climbed 1.4% year on year to 20.60 trillion yuan.
The country's foreign trade, in yuan terms, surged 16.9% year on year to roughly 4.45 trillion yuan in the month, the NBS data indicated. In breakdown, exports and imports soared by 13.8% and 21.5%, respectively, to 2.59 trillion yuan and 1.86 trillion yuan.
In January-May, the total value of foreign trade amounted to 20.68 trillion yuan, a rise of 15.3% from the same months last year. Among them, exports swelled by 11.8% to 11.91 trillion yuan, while imports leapt by 20.5% to 8.77 trillion yuan.
During the same period, fixed-asset investment - a gauge of expenditures on sectors including infrastructure, property, machinery and equipment - dropped 4.1% year on year to 17.85 trillion yuan. The investment decreased by 1.91% month on month in May.
As for the surveyed urban unemployment rate, it averaged out at 5.2% in the first five months, unchanged from the corresponding period last year. In May, the rate dipped 0.1 percentage points to 5.1%.
