Amid COVID-19 outbreaks and a complex international environment, China's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 2.5 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2022, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Friday.

In the second quarter, the country's GDP grew 0.4 percent year-on-year, NBS data showed.

China's economy encountered increasing downward pressure in the second quarter due to unexpected factors both at home and abroad, but with recent supportive policies and getting COVID-19 outbreaks under control, the economy has the momentum to stabilize and rebound, Fu Linghui, spokesperson of NBS said on Friday. 

Economic recovery in January and February was better than expected, while major economic indicators saw a significant decline in March and April following the impact of the Russia-Ukraine crisis and COVID-19 outbreaks, but there have been more improvements since May, he said.

Industrial output and investment 

China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, went up 3.4 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year, led by high-tech manufacturing's 9.6 percent year-on-year growth.

In June alone, the growth of industrial output, which is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with an annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan ($2.96 million), quickened to 3.9 percent year-on-year, expanding by 3.2 percentage points from that in May, according to the NBS.

China's fixed-asset investment went up 6.1 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year, including a 7.1 percent growth in infrastructure, and 10.4 percent growth in manufacturing. The embattled real estate sector saw investment going down by 5.4 percent.

Retail, employment and income 

In the first half of this year, the retail sales of consumer goods went down 0.7 percent year-on-year, and online retail sales increased by 3.1 percent year-on-year.

China's retail sales of consumer goods went up 3.1 percent year-on-year in June, recovering from a prior slump after being down 11.1 percent in April and down 6.7 percent in May.

China's surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.5 percent in June, down from 5.9 percent in May.

China's per capita disposable income stood at 18,463 yuan (about $2,735) in the first half of 2022, up 4.7 percent year on year in nominal terms.

The ratio of average per capita disposable income in the urban area versus the income in the rural area is 2.55, narrowing by 0.06 compared with the same period last year.

(With input from Xinhua)