Retail sales jump, factory output slows

Robust consumer spending coupled with the government's stimulus plans to propel domestic spending helped boost retail sales during April, even as the industrial output growth slowed marginally in China.

Retail sales grew 14.8 percent in April after gaining 14.7 percent a month earlier, aided by the increased spending on automobiles and furniture, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.

Taking the 1.5 percent decline in the consumer price index into account, the retail sales in real terms could have accelerated to about 17 percent in April, the strongest since late 2008, a Morgan Stanley research note said.