New economic data for August shows uneven development in China, the statistics office in Beijing said on Tuesday.
Industry growth picked up, while retail sales increased only slightly and investment continued to fall. Weak demand is making it harder for foreign firms to sell in China, while competition from Chinese manufacturers is growing on international markets.
Industrial output rose 5.2% year-on-year in August, up from 4.5% in July. Retail sales, by contrast, grew only 0.4%, after 0.6% in July. Weak car sales were a particular drag.
Fixed-asset investment fell 7.2% overall from January to August compared with the same period a year earlier. This includes spending on buildings, machinery and infrastructure. By comparison, the decline for the first seven months of the year had been 6.7%.
The property crisis is weighing particularly heavily: investment in real estate projects collapsed by nearly one fifth in the first eight months of 2026.
While domestic demand remains weak, export business is growing strongly. China's customs authority reported last week that goods exports in August rose 25% year-on-year in dollar terms.
China is an important sales market for other export-orientated countries such as Germany. At the same time, Chinese manufacturers are expanding their overseas business, competing with industry in countries such as Germany in the process.