(NBS) China’s retail sales defied Omicron impacts in the January-February period to rise by 6.7%, above estimates of 3.0%. The gain was stronger than the 1.7% improvement in December.
The industrial output also followed suit, after posting a gain of 7.5% in January-February period, the fastest increase since June 2021. The improvement was greater than December’s 4.3% gain and 3.9% estimates.
The increase in retail sales is believed to have been boosted by the Winter Olympic Games as thousands of fans lined up to acquire merchandise.
The robust performance happened even as the People’s Bank of China held its one-year medium-term lending facility loans unchanged, while the market was expecting a reduction.
Iris Pang, Greater China chief economist at ING, says the unexpectedly strong performance of China may have influenced the central bank to hold policy rates steady on Tuesday.
Analysts still expect PBOC to resume monetary easing soon to boost the economy even as Covid cases continue to rise while global uncertainty cripples the outlook.
CSI 300 is down -4.57%, USDCNY is up +0.24%.
