BEIJING, April 18 – China’s economy showed signs of strengthening in the first quarter of 2025, with both retail sales and industrial production posting faster year-on-year growth, official data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Thursday.
Retail sales of consumer goods rose 4.6% year-on-year to 12.47 trillion yuan ($1.73 trillion) in the January–March period, marking an improvement of 1.1 percentage points over the growth rate seen in 2024. In March alone, sales climbed 5.9% from a year earlier, up from the 4% increase recorded in the first two months of the year.
Industrial output also gained momentum, increasing 6.5% year-on-year in the first quarter. The pace of growth picked up from 5.9% in the January–February period, with March output surging 7.7% compared to the same month last year.
The figures reflect the performance of large industrial firms with annual main business revenues of at least 20 million yuan ($2.77 million), the NBS said. The stronger-than-expected data suggests a modest rebound in domestic demand and manufacturing activity amid ongoing efforts by Beijing to stabilize growth and boost confidence in the world’s second-largest economy.
