Growth in industrial production in China weakened more than expected in May.
Compared to the previous year, the increase was 5.6% after 6.7% in April, the statistics office in Beijing on Monday reported.
Analysts had expected a slowdown, but not as marked.
Investment outside the agricultural sector rose by 4.0% in the first five months. By the end of April, the increase had been 4.2%. By contrast, turnover in the retail sector developed more strongly than experts had expected. This rose by 3.7% in May - 1.4 percentage points more than in April.