For April alone, production growth declined 2.9 percent year on year from March's 5 percent. With efforts to contain the Omicron-fueled coronavirus outbreaks, enhance transportation and logistics, and support enterprises to tide over difficulties, industrial production will be on the mend, he added. 'Short-term impact'On retail sales, NBS data showed that these dipped 0.2 percent year on year to 13.81 trillion yuan (about $2 trillion) in January to April. For the fourth month alone, retail sales declined 11.1 percent from a year ago to 2.95 trillion yuan, which Fu mainly blamed on "the short-term impact of Covid-19." Despite the drop in retail sales, Lu said basic living needs were guaranteed, leading to the sales growth of relevant commodities.

Source: Manila Times May 17, 2022 10:02 UTC