2026.03.1602:11:12UTC+00China Industrial Output Growth Beats Estimates

China’s industrial production grew 6.3% year-on-year in the combined January–February 2026 period, up from 5.2% in December and above market expectations of 5.1%. Output strengthened across all major sectors, including mining (6.1% vs 5.4% in December), manufacturing (6.6% vs 5.7%), and utilities—covering electricity, heat, gas, and water—(4.7% vs 0.8%).

Within manufacturing, 35 of 41 major industries recorded growth. Notable increases were seen in computers and communications equipment (14.2%), railway and shipbuilding (13.7%), general equipment (8.9%), special equipment (8.8%), electrical machinery (8.7%), chemicals (7.6%), coal mining and washing (7.2%), agriculture and food processing (6.1%), oil and gas (5.8%), textiles (5.3%), electricity and heat production (5.1%), non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling (3.9%), automotive (3.4%), non-metallic mineral products (2.5%), and ferrous metal smelting and rolling (2.2%).

On a monthly basis, industrial output rose 0.83%. For the full year 2025, industrial production increased by 5.9%.