China’s slowdown worsened in October, dragged by soft consumer demand and a deepening property downturn, with the long holiday period further denting factory activity.
Fixed-asset investment, which includes real estate, contracted 1.7% for the first ten months of the year, steepening from a 0.5% decline in the January-to-September period, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Friday. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.8% drop.
The last time China recorded a contraction in fixed-asset investment was in 2020 during the pandemic, according to data going back to 1992 from Wind Information, a private database focused on the country.
Industrial output expanded 4.9% in October, a slowdown from a 6.5% rise in the prior month, missing expectations for a 5.5% jump.
China’s manufacturing activity contracted more than expected in October, shrinking to the lowest level in six months, as a weeklong holiday, which stretched from Oct. 1 to Oct. 8, shuttered most factories across the country.
