China’s stimulus lifts retail sales, GDP target hopes, but ‘decisive support’ urged

China’s retail sales posted strong growth in October on the back of Beijing’s stimulus measures, increasing hope the world’s second-largest economy can accomplish its annual economic growth target.

But even as the key indicator of consumption beat expectations and increased by 4.8 per cent year on year last month, marking the highest level since February, analysts still called for more stimulus following president-elect Donald Trump’s election victory last week.

China’s overall fixed assets investment, including major items such as infrastructure construction, manufacturing and property spending, also rose by 3.4 per cent in the first 10 months of the year, unchanged from January to September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) also confirmed on Friday.

“People are turning more positive in October because of the stimulus packages and the economy has been stabilised a little bit,” said Gary Ng, senior economist at investment bank Natixis.

“But not as strong as the market expected. And I think it is a mixed picture of how long all this trend will actually continue.”