China’s industrial growth slows in March

China’s industrial growth slowed in March and retail sales shrank due to the economic crippling effects of the closures caused by a new coronavirus pandemic in several cities of the country. Data released by China’s statistics office on Monday showed industrial production increased by 5.0 percent year-on-year in March. This exceeded analysts’ expectations of a 4.5 percent increase, but showed a slowdown from the 7.5 percent growth in January-February. However, the March data reflected the second largest expansion in the last six months.