China’s economic activity data soars a year after lockdown

  • Industrial production jumped 35.1% in the January-February period from a year earlier, compared with a median estimate of 32.2% in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
  • Retail sales climbed 33.8% in the period, versus a forecast of 32%.
  • Fixed-asset investment rose 35%, well below a projection of 40.9%.
  • The jobless rate was 5.5% at the end of February, up from 5.2% in December.
  • The CSI 300 Index pared an earlier loss of as much as 1.5% after the data dump to trade 0.8% lower as of 10:25 a.m. in Shanghai.
  • The yuan was little changed in both onshore and offshore markets. Source Japan Times

Italy’s national debt over 155 pct of GDP in 2020: ISTAT

Pushed by drastically increased public spending and a record-setting economic slowdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Italy’s national debt ratio surged last year, reaching 155.6 per cent of the country’s GDP, authorities said. Data issued on Tuesday by the country’s National Statistics Institute (ISTAT) revealed that the national debt in 2020 totalled 2.57 trillion euros ($3 trillion), Xinhua news agency reported. Source Menafn