China’s retail sales rose by 7.6% year-on-year in October 2023, accelerating from a 5.5% gain in the prior month and exceeding market estimates of 7.0%, marking the tenth straight month of increase in retail turnover and the fastest growth since May.
For the January to October period, retail trade increased by 6.9%.
Separately, China’s fixed-asset investment increased by 2.9 percent year-on-year to CNY 41.94 trillion in the first ten months of 2023, compared with market forecasts and figures in the prior period of a 3.1% growth.
Meanwhile, China’s surveyed urban unemployment rate was 5% in October 2023, the same as in the previous month. The jobless rate in 31 large cities and towns edged down to 5% in October from 5.2% in the previous month. The average weekly working hours of employees in enterprises across the country were 48.7 hours.
Looking ahead to 2023, the government has set a target for the jobless rate to be around 5.5%, with the objective of creating approximately 12 million new urban jobs.