China Industrial Output Growth Beats Estimates
2026-04-16 02:04
By
Chusnul Chotimah
1 min. read
China’s industrial production grew 5.7% yoy in March 2026, surpassing market expectations of 5.5% but slowing from a 6.3% rise in the combined January–February period, as fallout from the Iran war dampened momentum in China's economy.
Activity moderated across major sectors, including mining (5.7% vs 6.1% in January–February), manufacturing (6.0% vs 6.6%), and utilities, electricity, heat, gas, and water (3.5% vs 4.7%).
Within manufacturing, 30 of 41 major industries posted growth, including computers and communications equipment (12.5%), railway and shipbuilding (13.3%), general equipment (6.3%), special equipment (6.2%), electrical machinery (5.4%), chemicals (9.0%), coal mining and washing (5.3%), agriculture and food processing (8.0%), oil and gas (9.4%), textiles (1.7%), automotive (7.5%), and electricity and heat production (4.2%).
In contrast, output contracted for non-metallic mineral products (-5.5%).
Monthly, industrial output grew 0.28%.
For Q1, industrial output rose 6.1%.