China retail sales up 9.7% in first two months of 2018

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China's retail sales of consumer goods grew 9.7 percent year-on-year in the first two months of 2018, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Wednesday.

The NBS combines January and February activity data this year due to distortions caused by the long Lunar New Year holidays, which began in mid-February this year but fell in January last year.

Meanwhile, China's industrial output expanded 7.2 percent in the first two months, compared with 6.2 percent growth in December 2017, official data showed.

Industrial output, officially called industrial value added, is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with annual turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about 3 million US dollars).

According to NBS, China's fixed-asset investment grew 7.9 percent year-on-year in the first two months of this year.

Private sector fixed-asset investment rose 8.1 percent, compared with an increase of 6.0 percent in 2017.

In China, the private investment accounts for about 60 percent of overall investment.

China's property development investment sees faster growth, with expanded 9.9 percent year-on-year in the first two months of this year, up from 7 percent for the whole year of 2017, the NBS said.

(With input from Xinhua)