BEIJING - China's value-added industrial output increased by 5.6 percent year-on-year in the first four months of 2026, official data showed on Monday.

In April alone, industrial output grew 4.1 percent year-on-year, and rose 0.05 percent compared to the previous month, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

The industrial output is used to measure the activity of large enterprises each with an annual main business turnover of at least 20 million yuan ($2.92 million).

In terms of sectors, the value added output of the mining sector increased by 5.5 percent year-on-year in the first four months of the year, while that of the manufacturing sector grew by 5.8 percent. The value-added output of the electricity, heat, gas and water production and supply sectors went up by 4.5 percent, the data showed. 

Retail sales

The retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of the country's consumption strength, expanded 1.9 percent year-on-year in the first four months, Monday's data showed.  

During the period, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached about 16.49 trillion yuan. Excluding automobiles, retail sales grew by 3.1 percent to 15.2 trillion yuan, according to the data.

Urban retail sales totaled 14.29 trillion yuan in the January-April period, up 1.8 percent year-on-year, while rural retail sales posted faster growth of 2.8 percent, reaching 2.2 trillion yuan.

Retail sales of services grew by 5.6 percent year-on-year in the first four months, accelerating by 0.1 percentage points from the first quarter. Fast growth was recorded in telecommunications and information services, tourism and rental services, cultural and recreational services, as well as transportation and travel services, the data showed.

From January to April, total online retail sales of goods and services reached 6.53 trillion yuan, up 6.6 percent year-on-year. Online goods sales rose 5.7 percent to nearly 4.12 trillion yuan, accounting for 25 percent of total retail sales of consumer goods. Online services sales grew at an 8.3 percent rate, reaching 2.41 trillion yuan, according to the data.

Fixed-asset investment

Meanwhile, China's fixed-asset investment went down 1.6 percent year-on-year in the first four months.

The investment totaled 14.13 trillion yuan during the period, the bureau said.

Breakdown data showed infrastructure investment grew 4.3 percent year-on-year, while manufacturing investment increased 1.2 percent over the same period of last year, according to the data.

Excluding the property sector, the country's fixed-asset investment rose 1.3 percent in the first four months. Meanwhile, investment in property development slumped 13.7 percent year-on-year. 

Home prices in first-tier cities

On the housing market, home prices in China's first-tier cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, increased slightly in April from the previous month, while second- and third-tier cities reported narrowed or unchanged price declines.

New home prices in the four first-tier cities edged up 0.1 percent month-on-month in April, according to the bureau. Second-tier cities saw a smaller price decline of 0.1 percent, while prices in third-tier cities dropped 0.3 percent, the same with the previous month.

Similar trends were seen in the resale housing market, the data showed.

The bureau's monthly report tracks residential property prices in 70 major Chinese cities, comprising the four first-tier cities, 31 second-tier cities, and 35 third-tier cities.

Wang Zhonghua, a statistician at the bureau, said 21 of the 70 cities recorded month-on-month increases or unchanged prices in the new home market, five more than in March. The figure in the resale market was 16, down by one from the previous month.

On a yearly basis, sales prices across all city tiers generally declined. However, the first-tier cities saw a narrowing of price drops in both new and resale home markets. Most other major cities reported narrower or unchanged declines, although third-tier cities saw slightly faster declines in new home prices.

Property investment

In the first four months, the investment in property development decreased, down 13.7 percent year-on-year, according to the bureau's data.

The floor space of newly-built commercial buildings sold was 252.58 million square meters, down by 10.2 percent year-on-year. The total sales of newly-built commercial buildings were 2.3 trillion yuan, down by 14.6 percent.

Urban unemployment 

The official data also indicated that the surveyed urban unemployment rate in China stood at 5.2 percent in April, 0.2 percentage points lower than that of the previous month.