China industrial output rises 6.3% in first two months of 2026

Data showed that retail sales of consumer goods in China increased 2.8% year on year during January-February period of 2026

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China's value-added industrial output rose 6.3 per cent in the first two months of this year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China. People visit a market at the tourist site of the Forbidden City in Beijing on March 15.

China's value-added industrial output rose 6.3 per cent year on year in the first two months of 2026, according to data released Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

NBS data also showed that retail sales of consumer goods in China increased 2.8 per cent year on year during the January-February period of 2026, according to Xinhua.

Meanwhile China's Hua Hong Group has developed advanced chip manufacturing technologies that can be used to produce artificial intelligence chips, four people familiar with the matter said, a major milestone in Beijing's efforts to boost tech self-sufficiency.

The group's contract chipmaking business, Huali Microelectronics, is readying a 7-nanometre (nm) chipmaking process at its plant in Shanghai, the people said, which would make it the second Chinese chipmaker with such advanced technologies.

Hua Hong is China's second-largest chipmaker.

China's largest contract chipmaker, SMIC, is at present the only domestic producer capable of making chips with 7 nm technologies.

The development comes after Washington eased some of its tech export controls since last year, allowing Nvidia to sell its second-most-powerful AI chips to China.