Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that, data just released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed the year-over-year growth rate of retail sales of consumer goods in November, a key indicator of consumption, slowed sharply to 1.3 percent from 2.9 percent in October. The numbers are far below market expectations and reached the lowest growth rate since the end of the strict Zero-Covid measures in December 2022.
Automobile sales were the major drag on retail growth, falling 8.3 percent year-over-year in November, down from -6.6 percent in October and marking the lowest level since April 2022. Growth in trade-in goods such as home appliances and mobile phones also generally slowed. The year-over-year growth rate of gold and silver jewelry consumption fell 29.1 percent from its high to 8.5 percent. And the year-over-year growth rate of catering also slowed to 3.2 percent in November, down from 3.8 percent in October.
Economists pointed out that the problem of insufficient aggregate demand in China’s economy remains severe. The overall overcapacity problem led to insufficient demand. It’s worth noting that the data from the National Bureau of Statistics also shows the year-over-year growth rate of real estate investment further declined by -30.1 percent in November.
Source: Lianhe Zaobao, December 15, 2025
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/finance/china/story20251215-7968567