Economic Watch: Chinese economy sustains resilience, vitality despite headwinds

Fu Linghui (R), spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics, attends a press conference held by the State Council Information Office (SCIO) on China's national economic performance in July 2025, in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 15, 2025. (Xinhua/Pan Xu)

BEIJING, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Navigating a complex external environment and domestic weather challenges, China's economy has maintained solid expansion in July, demonstrating resilience and vitality, official data showed Friday.

Key indicators for the past month, such as industrial production, retail sales, investment and foreign trade, continued to rise, while employment stayed generally stable, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Industrial production rose 5.7 percent year on year in July, NBS data revealed, with high-tech manufacturing leading with a 9.3 percent growth. Fixed-asset investment increased 1.6 percent year on year in the first seven months of 2025.

Consumer spending, a priority on the country's economic work agenda this year, continued to gain momentum. Retail sales of consumer goods grew 4.8 percent year on year in the first seven months of this year, while retail sales of services expanded 5.2 percent.

Retail sales of travel consulting and rental services, transportation services, and cultural, sports and leisure services all posted double-digit growth, according to the NBS.

Noting continued pressures from trade protectionism and unilateralism, as well as short-term effects of extreme weather, NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui said China's economy has made "steady progress," supported by more proactive macro policies and strengthening new growth drivers.

The spokesperson highlighted that government policies to boost consumption, such as the consumer goods trade-in program, have continued to drive growth. Among major retailers, sales of household appliances and audio-visual equipment surged 28.7 percent year on year last month, while furniture sales rose 20.6 percent.

Upgrade trends in consumption were also apparent, with sales of sports and entertainment goods as well as jewelry rising by 13.7 percent and 8.2 percent in July, respectively.

Fu noted that new growth engines have been growing steadily. The production of new energy vehicles, integrated circuits, and industrial robots surged 32.9 percent, 10.4 percent and 32.9 percent year on year from January to July, respectively.

Despite global uncertainties, China's foreign trade witnessed strong performance in July, with total goods imports and exports in yuan-denominated terms up 6.7 percent year on year, 1.5 percentage points faster than in June.

The resilience and strengths of China's foreign trade lie in the country's ever-deepening trade cooperation with countries across the world, as well as its highly competitive products and the vitality of foreign trade firms, Fu told the press.

On the job front, the surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.2 percent, up 0.2 percentage points from the previous month but still within the annual ceiling of around 5.5 percent in July. The rise was "a seasonal increase" due to factors including the graduation season, according to Fu.

Employment among key groups remained generally stable. In July, the unemployment rate for rural migrant workers stood at 4.9 percent, below the national average urban unemployment rate.

Fu cautioned that the foundation for economic recovery and improvement still needs to be consolidated, citing external instabilities and uncertainties, stronger supply over demand in the domestic market and emerging structural issues.

However, he said the conditions and fundamental trends for long-term development remain unchanged, supported by growing market demand, the advancement of new quality productive forces, ongoing reforms and opening up, and the continued positive impact of government policies.

Going forward, Fu said China will work to maintain the continuity and stability of policies while making them more flexible and predictable, and concentrate efforts on keeping employment, businesses, markets and expectations stable.

China has targeted its full-year economic growth at around 5 percent this year. In the first half, the country's gross domestic product grew 5.3 percent year on year.

Jens Eskelund, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, said the chamber expects China to achieve its roughly 5 percent GDP growth target this year, particularly highlighting the potential in consumption.

"It is encouraging to see that the rate of consumption in China is increasing," Eskelund said in a recent interview with Xinhua. "A number of consumer-facing segments in China's economy are relatively nascent and have huge growth potential." ■