China’s economy showed further signs of weakness last month, with key data Monday revealing factory output and consumption rising at their weakest pace for around a year.

Beijing has struggled to fully reignite the world’s number two economy since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the once-booming property sector mired in a debt crisis and exports facing mounting headwinds.

The trends have contributed to a slump in consumer confidence, dragging on spending and threatening leaders’ official growth target for this year of around 5%.

Industrial production edged up 5.2% year-on-year in August, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the slowest pace since the same month last year.

The figure missed the 5.6% growth forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

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