China's CPI growth falls to 3.2% in Feb

BEIJING - China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 3.2 percent year on year in February, the lowest growth since June 2010, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

The increase eased from a 4.5-percent rise registered in January, when a shopping spree during the traditional Chinese Lunar New Year boosted retail prices.

The country's CPI climbed 3.9 percent in the first two months compared with the previous year. On a monthly basis, CPI dipped 0.1 percent in February, the NBS said.??[Full Story]

China PPI stays flat in Feb

BEIJING - China's Producer Price Index (PPI), a main gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, remained unchanged in February from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

The zero-growth reading, the lowest since December 2009, further eased from 0.7 percent in January, after hitting a 31-month high of 7.5 percent in July last year, NBS data showed.

On a month-on-month basis, the country's February PPI grew 0.1 percent from January, the NBS said in a statement on its website. [Full Story]

China's industrial value-added output up 11.4%

BEIJING - China's industrial value-added output grew 11.4 percent year on year in the first two months of this year, easing from 12.8 percent in December last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday.

The NBS ascribed the ease in growth to shrinking market demand.

In year-on-year terms, the industrial value-added output of State-owned and state-held companies rose 7.3 percent in the January-February period, while that of collectively-owned and joint-stock enterprises expanded by 9.9 percent and 13.9 percent, respectively. [Full Story]

China's retail sales up 14.7%

BEIJING - China's retail sales rose 14.7 percent year-on-year to 3.37 trillion yuan ($533.8 billion) in the first two months of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

After adjusting for inflation, the real growth rate came in at 10.8 percent, the NBS said.

Urban retail sales of consumer goods topped 2.91 trillion yuan in the January-February period, up 14.7 percent year-on-year, while retail sales in rural areas rose 14.6 percent to 454.4 billion yuan from a year earlier, the NBS said. [Full Story]

China's fixed-asset investment up 21.5%

BEIJING - China's urban fixed asset investment climbed 21.5 percent to 2.1189 trillion yuan ($336 billion) in the first two months of 2012 from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

The growth rate, down 2.3 percentage points year-on-year, dropped to the lowest level since 17.4 percent in 2002, official data showed.

During the January-February period, investment in the primary industry jumped 43.9 percent year-on-year to reach 30.4 billion yuan. [Full Story]

China issues over 710b yuan in loans

BEIJING -- China's new yuan-denominated loans hit 710.7 billion yuan ($112.81 billion) in February, up 173 billion yuan year-on-year, the central bank said Friday.

By the end of February, the outstanding broad money supply (M2), which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, rose 13 percent year-on-year to 86.72 trillion yuan, the People's Bank of China said in a statement on its website.

M2 growth in February was 0.6 percentage points faster than that at the end of January, according to the statement. [Full Story]