China's Retail Sales Surge

This surge is linked to increasing demand for consumption as consumers spent more during the Chinese New Year holiday, as well as government stimulus and international trade.

ChinaChina's National Bureau of Statistics reported recently that retail sales rose by 33.8% in February (year-on-year), surpassing expectations of 32% and the previous month's 4.6%.

Industrial production also rose more than expected, increasing by 35.1% (year-on-year), against expectations of 30% and the previous month's figure of 7.3%.

This surge is linked to increasing demand for consumption as consumers spent more during the Chinese New Year holiday, as well as government stimulus and international trade.

National Bureau of Statistics Spokeswoman Liu Aihua commented that despite positive aspects of China's economy becoming more prominent, the foundations of this economic recovery are not solid yet.

“COVID-19 is still spreading around the world and global economic conditions are complex and severe; domestically the imbalances of the recovery are still quite obvious,” Aihua said.

This data follows the recently released Caixin/Markit Service Purchasing Managers’ Index, which signaled the lowest expansion of the services sector since April of last year. Manufacturing activity also expanded, though also at a slower pace.

China has been slowly removing COVID-19 restrictions. Recently, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced that it is removing the capacity limits for entertainment venues, letting local governments decide the details.

The government is also planning to implement a very ambitious vaccination plan, which aims to vaccinate half a billion Chinese people in about four months. If successful, China would have vaccinated 70% to 80% of the population by the end of this year or by the middle of 2022, according to the Center for Disease Control projections.

“We hope that China can take the lead in achieving herd immunity in the world,” said the head of the CDC.

So far, 52.5 million individuals have been vaccinated, which is low compared to other countries. This is mostly due to China's preference for distributing its vaccine to the rest of the world, among them 69 developing countries, mainly in Africa and Latin America.

At the moment, the virus seems to be contained. Yesterday, the National Health Commission announced five new COVID-19 cases in mainland China, driving up the number of confirmed cases to 90,049 while the death toll stands at 4,636.

Ibeth Rivero

Ibeth contributes daily market commentary in both English and Spanish (both of which she speaks fluently) and she also manages the DailyForex mobile app to ensure that traders around the world are getting important market updates in real time.