China's economy maintains steady momentum in first seven months

From January to July, despite external uncertainties and conflicts, China's national economy remained generally stable, with sustained momentum from new growth drivers and an improved economic structure.

Official data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday showed that China's value-added industrial output increased by 5.3% year on year, while that of high-tech manufacturing rose by 13.8%.

In terms of products, the production of 3D printing devices, lithium-ion batteries and industrial robots grew by 52.3%, 40.2% and 28.5% year on year, respectively.

Industrial production grows rapidly In terms of sectors, the value-added output of the mining sector increased by 2.5%, while that of the manufacturing sector grew by 5.6%.

The value-added output of the electricity, heat, gas and water production and supply sectors went up by 5.4%, according to NBS data.

Looking at ownership, the value-added output of state-owned and state-holding enterprises grew 3.9% year on year, while that of private enterprises rose by 4.5%.

Meanwhile, the purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector stood at 49.2% last month.

From January to June, total profits of China's industrial firms above designated size reached 3.948 trillion yuan (about $581.67 billion), up 18.7% year on year.

Industrial output is used to measure the activity of large enterprises, each with annual main business revenue of at least 20 million yuan.

Sun Xiao, an NBS statistician, said that from January to July, emerging sectors represented by high-tech manufacturing and digital product manufacturing accounted for approximately 50% of industrial output growth, an increase of about 3 percentage points compared to the first six months of the year.

Retail sales of goods, services up 2.6% China's total retail sales of goods and services, a major indicator of the country's consumption strength, increased by 2.6% year on year in the first seven months of 2026, according to the NBS.

Retail sales of services increased by 5% in the January-July period from a year earlier, while those of goods rose by 1.1%.

In the first seven months of the year, total retail sales of consumer goods reached 28.8 trillion yuan (about $4.24 trillion), up 1.2% year on year, the data revealed.

From January to July, online retail sales of goods and services reached 11.7 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.8% year on year.