Data about China’s economic recovery continue to swing back and forth. Recent information on manufacturing has been good, as have reports about exports. But, more recently, consumer spending and industrial output have been weak. To some extent the tension between PMI and industrial output makes difficult any interpretation of how that part of China is doing.

According to Bloomberg:

China’s industrial output had the weakest start to a year since 2009 and lending and retail sales growth slowed, toughening challenges for a new leadership that wants to narrow the gap between rich and poor.

Production increased 9.9 percent in the first two months and retail sales rose 12.3 percent, government data showed March 9, trailing economists’ estimates. New local-currency loans in February fell to 620 billion yuan ($99.6 billion), the People’s Bank of China said yesterday, lower than the estimates of 27 out of 28 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey.

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