By Yin Lei
China's economy stayed on a steady and upward path, as indicated by the monthly update of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday.
Industrial value added in May went up by 6.8 percent in real terms, 0.2 percentage points lower than in April and 0.3 percentage points higher than the same month last year.
Of all the 41 industries, 36 saw higher output, with the automobile, electronics, power generation, pharmaceuticals, and tobacco industries seeing two-digit growths.
Industrial electricity consumption in May, after adjusting for transmission and distribution losses, went up by 11.4 percent, 5.5 percentage points higher than in April, a growth indicative of the industrial robustness.
For the first five months, the total industrial output increased by 6.9 percent year-on-year, 0.2 percentage points higher than the same period in 2017.
Total retail sales of consumer goods in May increased by 8.5 percent year-on-year to RMB 3.0359 trillion, down by 0.9 percentage points from April. For the first five months of 2018, this sales indicator grew by 9.5 percent year-on-year, compared with a rate of 9.7 percent for the first four months.
The consumer price index (CPI) rose by 1.8 percent in May, the same as in April.
From January to May, fixed asset investments went up by 6.1 percent year-on-year to RMB 21.6043 trillion, lower by 0.9 percentage points than in the first four months.
In May, imports and exports registered a sum of RMB 2.526 trillion, up by 8.6 percent year-on-year, 1.5 percentage points higher than in the previous month.
Exports went up by 3.2 percent, 0.3 percentage points lower than in April, to RMB 1.3413 trillion, and imports grew by 15.6 percent, four percentage points higher than in April, to RMB 1.1848 trillion. This resulted in a surplus of RMB 156.5 billion in May, RMB 23.2 billion less than in April
In the first five months, imports and exports totaled RMB 11.632 trillion, up by 8.8 percent year-on-year.
The production of coal, crude oil and natural gas in May remained stable. The crude oil processing amount grew at a slower pace and power generation rose faster.
