HMM: China Property Drag Is Getting Worse, Factory Output Disappoints.

Among a slew of data published on Monday, analysts latched onto the bad news from the property market, which has been the biggest drag on China’s economic growth. Declines in real estate investment and home prices both gathered pace last month.

Industrial production rose 5.6% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said, slowing from April and missing the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. Retail sales offered some encouragement, picking up more than expected, but Chinese shoppers remain far from recovering their pre-pandemic mojo.

The numbers add up to a still-weak recovery, most economists said — likely requiring more action from Beijing to bolster consumer demand and tackle imbalances, if this year’s 5% growth target is to be met. That could take the form of stepped-up government spending and heightened efforts by the central bank to put a floor under housing markets and get credit flowing.

“The most disappointing in May’s data is probably that property sales barely saw any improvements even after so many supportive measures,” said Jacqueline Rong, chief China economist at BNP Paribas SA.

It isn’t that Beijing’s troubles aren’t serious — because they are. But not serious enough to detail the country’s unprecedented peacetime naval expansion.