Chinese economy on an earthquake land in the first two months 2025, data shows – FirstPost

China’s economy has registered an unequal trajectory in the first two months of the year, a lot of key indicators showed Monday, in which the Beijing unit is confused to stimulate signaling consumption.

Officials have looked in recent months to revive confidence in the second largest economy in the world, which has been offered by the persistent problems of the property sector and is now under increasing pressure from new commercial tensions with the United States.

The data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in Beijing provided a few positive signs on Monday, showing retail sales a key measure of consumers’ feeling increased by four per year during January and February combined.

However, the data also showed that unemployment has increased, while housing prices continued to drop in most major cities.

“In the first two months, with the sustained effects of macro policies, the national economy has maintained the new and positive development,” NBS said in a statement.

But, he warned, “the actual internal demand is weak, (and) some companies are facing difficulties in production and operation.”

“The foundation for the sustained economic recovery and growth is not strong enough,” he said.

The rate of questioned urban unemployment – China’s main metrics for measuring some of the work – has increased to 5.4 percent in February, NBS said by 0.2 percentage points compared to the previous month.

This was over the forecast of 5.1 percent Bloomberg and was the largest recorded in two years.

And, in a worrying sign for the property sector, a price index of NBS for new commercial houses has dropped from year to year in 68 out of 70 large and medium-sized cities.

– “mixed messages” –

China statistics authorities combine many economic indicators for the first two months of the year to take into account the potential distortions caused by the annual Lunar New Year.

The industrial production from January and February has also increased by 5.9 percent from year to year, they showed the data, slowing from the increase of 6.2 percent in December.

Beijing said this month that it aims at a total growth this year of five percent – as last year and an objective considered ambitious by many economists.

Compared to a commercial war intensified under US President Donald Trump, Chinese officials are now under pressure to stimulate domestic consumption to reduce the traditional dependence of the export economy.

Since taking over the function in January, Trump has slapped the rates worth 20 percent to Chinese over the seas, which last year has reached record levels.

“The international environment will become more complex and severe in the next stage,” said NBS spokesman, Fu Linghui, for a press conference, after launching the data on Monday.

“But the general tendency of international cooperation and common winnings will not change,” said Fu.

The government launched an action plan on Sunday, hopes it can exceed the low consumer demand, including measures such as property reform and child care subsidies.

“Macro launched data today show mixed messages,” said Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.

The data on activities on industrial production and retail sales have shown “consistent signals and expectations”, he wrote, although the increase in unemployment at two years was “unexpected”.

“Unemployment is often an indicator of return, therefore, it can be improved if the fiscal policy helps to maintain the activity in progress in the coming months,” Zhang said.

“The risk for economy is the damages caused by the higher US tariffs for China’s exports, which will probably appear in commercial data in the next few months.”