China's economy entered the second quarter on a weaker footing, with retail sales barely growing in April and factory output cooling more sharply than expected, pointing to a widening gap in the world's second-largest economy.
Retail sales rose just 0.2% from a year earlier in April, the weakest increase since December 2022, according to data from China's National Bureau of Statistics. The figure was far below the 2% growth expected by economists and slowed sharply from March's 1.7% gain.
