China reported data Friday that showed a pickup in growth in August from the prior month. The data also came in above expectations across the board. Retail sales grew by 5.4% in August from a year ago, topping a Reuters forecast for 3.5% growth. Industrial production rose by 4.2% in August from a year earlier, beating the 3.8% increase estimated in a Reuters poll of analysts Fixed asset investment for the first eight months of the year rose by 5.8%, above the 5.5% increase forecast by Reuters. Investment in manufacturing picked up the most, up by 10% from the year-ago period. Infrastructure investment grew at a ... (full story)

In August, faced with multiple unexpected threats of increasingly complicated and challenging international environment, sporadic and frequent domestic outbreaks of COVID-19 pandemic and the extreme heat, under the strong leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, all regions and departments effectively coordinated the COVID-19 prevention and control and the economic and social development, strongly implemented the policy package and the follow-up policies for stabilizing the economy and vigorously released the policy effectiveness. As a result, the ... (full story)