China January-May Investment Growth Cools Unexpectedly But Factories Hold Up

Growth in China's fixed-asset investment and retail sales cooled unexpectedly in May, but factory output growth was steady, doing little to clear up uncertainty over prospects for the world's second-largest economy.

Factory output grew 6 percent in May from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected growth to ease slightly to 5.9 percent from 6 percent in April.