HONG KONG -- China's retail sales grew at a faster pace in July than the previous month, while industrial production and investment growth slowed, highlighting an imbalanced recovery in the world's No. 2 economy.
Total retail sales of consumer goods, a gauge of household spending, were up 2.7% from a year ago, according to data published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday. The pace of expansion was faster than June's 2.0% -- the lowest reading since December 2022 -- and slightly beat a consensus forecast of 2.6% in a Bloomberg poll.
