China's economy showed increasing unevenness in May, with retail sales falling for the first time in more than three years while industrial output picked up pace.
Industrial output rose 4.5 per cent in May from a year earlier, picking up from the 4.1 per cent growth recorded in April, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Tuesday. The reading beat expectations of a 4.3 per cent increase in a Reuters poll.
A surge in global AI investment has helped the world's biggest manufacturer offset the export hit many had expected from the Middle East turmoil, but a 19.4 per cent export gain has yet to filter through to domestic consumption.
